BT back down on Phorm
CommentsBT has opted-out of controversial online advertising system Phorm.
Shares in the company plummeted by 40% following the announcement while the online privacy campaigners greeted the news with elation, "I was unable to hold back the tears of joy," Alexander Hanaff of the 'No DPI' (Deep Packet Inspection) blog wrote.
Amazon, Wikipedia and UK directgov websites have already opted-out of Webwise scanning and Google is also said to be considering doing the same.
BT have previously come under fire for helping to develop Phorm's Webwise service and testing it on unwitting BT broadband users.
Those secret tests are now being investigated by the European Commission as a possible breach of EU privacy laws but BT's press release insisted that the decision to drop the company was purely a business decision.
"We continue to believe the interest based advertising category offers major benefits for consumers and publishers alike." BT claimed, "However, given our public commitment to developing next generation broadband and television services in the UK we have decided to weigh up the balance of resources devoted to other opportunities."
Phorm, meanwhile, expressed little upset at the news saying in a statement that they would "... continue to focus considerable effort on faster moving overseas opportunities."
With Webwise buried in the UK for the foreseeable future eyes will now turn to the reputations of the ISPs involved - BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk - who between them make up two-thirds of the UK broadband market.
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