Mr.Klean
02-28-2008, 12:59 PM
Earlier this month, we noted that three large UK ISPs had agreed to a questionable deal (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080218/024203278.shtml) with a startup named "Phorm." The ISPs would share all of your surfing data with Phorm who would then target advertisements to you based on your surfing patterns. We raised some privacy concerns, and noted that Phorm's claims that it would anonymize the data were laughable, since every "anonymized" data set seems to get quickly de-anonymized (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071130/114005.shtml). In the comments to that post, one commenter noted that the story was even worse, as Phorm was merely the reincarnation of a spyware firm (http://www.techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20080218/024203278#c58) that had made a rather infamous rootkit. Broadband Reports now has more on that story (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Would-You-Trust-A-Former-Spyware-Firm-With-Your-Privacy-92194), noting that the firm has a very shady past (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/25/phorm_isp_advertising/). It makes you wonder why these big ISPs would link up with such a company and why more people aren't up in arms about what their ISPs are doing with their data.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080227/114140370.shtml
Happy I don't live in the UK.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080227/114140370.shtml
Happy I don't live in the UK.