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By Julia Kukiewicz
Editor
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
First published 9 March 2009
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PROMINENT UK broadband providers TalkTalk, Virgin Media and BT have signed up to use it and that means so will around ten million of us. So who are Phorm and why do they want our data?
Get your jargon-free answers about the controversial company here. Plus, check back for updates on the story as they happen.
Who are Phorm?
Phorm are a U.S company selling targeted advertising called Webwise in the UK. The general idea is that by recording your browsing habits advertisers can sell more effectively.
Phorm has also claimed that monitoring web-content will give consumers extra protection against Phishing and even decrease the price of broadband, since targeted advertising will increase other revenue for broadband providers.
How does Phorm work?
Phorm monitors your browsing and then puts your viewed pages in their entirety into categories that correspond with advertising groups.
This means that it works in a different way to, say, Google who also offers targeted advertising. Whereas Google only targets based on the page you're viewing (unless you have an iGoogle account) Phorm collates your entire browsing history, tracked with your IP address.
Why is it so Controversial?
There are a few reasons why Phorm is so controversial. Not only has the company raised huge questions about online privacy it is also spectacularly (some would say suspiciously) poor at responding to the criticism that it has generated.
- Opt-Out vs. Opt-In
The main criticism of Phorm is that it's an opt-out service, at least in theory. This means that unlike iGoogle or similar programs you the user have given no implicit or explicit consent to have your data monitored.
More than this even if you did decide to opt-out of the service Phorm would still continue to mirror (store) your browsing although they wouldn't have any right to do anything with that information.
Many government officials and technology think tanks have questioned the legality of an opt-out programme. Last year, the independent body for protecting personal information - the ICO - stated that Phorm would only be legal as an opt-in product.
Opt-in would be a huge blow to Phorm as there is little to make the product attractive to consumers, and much more to worry consumers instead.
- Phorm is Fancy Ad-ware
Many anti- adware and spyware companies have claimed that Phorm's tracing cookies would be picked up as adware.
How exactly Webwise is distinguishable from adware is therefore a bit of a vexed question. And speaking of spyware...
- Phorm's Form: The Company's History
A fact that was picked up pretty quickly by critics is that Phorm was built out of an older company called 121media who was a spyware provider.
121media's big targeted advertising programme ContextPlus was shut down in 2006 following a series of major lawsuits elsewhere in the industry.
This news has not gone down well with the blogging community.
- Phorm has been linked to illegal testing on consumers
In April 2008 Phorm hit the headlines as BT tested Phorm on a random selection of customers without asking. Although it could be argued that this was BT's fault more than Phorm's the response showed the widespread opposition to the company.
Speaking on channel 4 news BT expressed hope of starting a new opt-in trial in the future.
Should I switch my broadband provider to avoid Phorm?
As you can see from the news above there is a fundamental disconnect in the Phorm story.
On the one hand, despite Phorm's strenuous attempts to explain its processes, technology companies, think tanks and most consumers are against it. Their objections are (generally) considered and informed - much more than the knee-jerk response to data collection Phorm sometimes seems to think.
Many of these people will tell you to switch your broadband provider to avoid Phorm and to send them a clear message that you don't want your broadband provider to be a data-pimp.
On the other hand, the government has yet to prohibit the company and monitoring groups such as Privacy International have said that they would have no problem with an opt-in scheme, which is the form Phorm would have to adopt in the UK.
There is certainly no sudden need to switch broadband providers to avoid Phorm just yet. And, hopefully broadband providers will be a bit more considered before secretly trialling Phorm again.
However, you can keep up to date with the latest goings on with Phorm by following our news section below.
The Latest News on Phorm
Get the latest ChooseISP.co.uk stories on the Phorm phenomenon.
6. 7. 2009 BT Back Down on Phorm
SHARES in Phorm plummet by 40% following BT's announcement that they have opted out of the controversial company. Online privacy campaigners greet the news with elation.
26. 6. 2009 Costly Delays Costing Phorm £1m a Month
IT emerges that delays in acceptance by UK ISPs are costing Phorm £1m a month. The company had previously lost £30 million in 2008 amid claims that its advertising technology was in breach of EU laws on consumer privacy.
12. 6. 2009 Phorm Attempts to Woo Customers with Webwise Discover
PHORM launch Webwise Discover, a personalised search service with the tagline "don't search, just browse" which they hope will win-over dubious internet users.
27. 3. 2009 Internet leaders asked to boycott Phorm
THE Open Rights Group attempts to boycott Phorm by sending letters to seven of the Internet's biggest players asking them to opt-out of Phorm. The companies asked are Microsoft, Google/YouTube, Facebook, AOL/Bebo, Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay.
6. 3. 2009: Phorm fights back against publicised user dislike
PHORM suppress a Which? Survey showing that users don't want their surfing habits to be sold by making legal threats to the magazine's publisher.
31. 10. 2008: Orange Broadband gives Phorm the cold shoulder
ORANGE Broadband has decided not to employ the controversial personalised-advertising system, Phorm, on its broadband network.
29. 9. 2008: Phorm advertising spy system: We've already agreed to it.
IN a letter to the anti-Phorm campaign, the police announced that the investigation into BT and the secret trials it held of the service over the past two years would be halted. Interestingly, the letter also indicated a belief that there was already some implied consent - in the form that we expect broadband providers to look at web browsing data anyway.
18. 7. 2008: UK threatened by EU over threat of Phorm
THE EU is threatening to deal with Phorm in the European Court of Justice no less if it doesn't see any action taken by the UK government to prevent the use of the Phorm system unless specific permission has been granted by the user.
16. 5. 2008: Broadband users shun Phorm
PHORM have suffered another public relations setback after a survey revealed that 56.6% of respondents would rather leave their broadband supplier than have their internet traffic monitored by the system.
18. 4. 2008: Government limbos under awkward Phorm questions
DESPITE being phrased as illegal, the government has refused to do anything about the controversial BT trials of Phorm, insisting it is out of their jurisdiction. Meanwhile Phorm admitted to trialling its system on over 10,000 unaware people.
11. 4. 2008: Phorm caught fiddling with its Wiki
AS if people didn't trust them enough, Phorm this week admitted to The Register that whilst editing 'some factual inaccuracies' in the company's own Wikipedia entry they, 'erroneously removed some relevant items in the editing process'.
4. 4. 2008: BT gets it in the neck from all sides over privacy row
BT has revealed that it has carried out two secret trials of the controversial Phorm advertising technology during the past two years.
21. 3. 2008: Inventor of Internet says 'no' to snooping
SIR Tim Berners-Lee, the man attributed with creating the Internet, has said that he would change his broadband provider if it began to track the websites he visited and then targeted him with personalised advertising.
29. 2. 2008: Fears of privacy as advertisers go the Google way
BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse (which owns AOL and TalkTalk) have come to an agreement with an online advertising company called Phorm.
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6. 7. 2009