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BT Phorm Trial Illegal!

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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: BT Phorm Trial Illegal!
    Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 2:44pm
Seems BT are in trouble over Phorm.
 
Quote Mr Bohm told BBC News: "If the customers in 2006 and 2007 weren't invited to do anything and it was completely surreptitious, and assuming that BT and Phorm trialled a version of what they are planning to launch later this year, then it was a massive scale illegal interception.
 
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VulcanB2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VulcanB2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 2:49pm
Quote If the customers in 2006 and 2007 weren't invited to do anything

I wasn't!

I hope they throw the book at them!!

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Vulcan.
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 2:51pm
Nor I... if we were included in the trial without our consent that's dodgy in my view.
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SimUK View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SimUK Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 2:57pm
Hold on. This is the problem with BBC's online reporitng of late (or of all time possibly).
 
The headline was: BT advert trials were 'illegal'
 
Seeming to suggest that it was illegal, no doubt about it. Judge decided so and everything.
 
But the first paragraph gives a bit more detail that puts it in a different context:  Trials of an online ad system carried out by BT on its customers were potentially illegal, says a lawyer.
 
And that suggests that they're just potentially illegal, not actually illegal, and only in the words of a lawyer (who is obviously on the side of supporting the claim/cause they're illegal, where as if you ask a lawyer backing the other side he'd claim they aren't illegal).
 
Will BBC News run a story "BT advert trials were 'legal'" when a lawyer for BT/Phorm says that he thinks they've done nothing wrong? Probably not.
 
Someone at the Beeb seems to have a bee in their bonnet about Phorm and wants to bang on the drum of it being illegal and wrong and bad (maybe it is, but aren't the BBC and their news reporting meant to be balanced?) at every possible opportunity. All very boring.
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VulcanB2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VulcanB2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 2:57pm
Quote Phorm's system works by "trawling" websites visited by users and then matches keywords from the content of the page to a profile.

Great! There goes yet more bandwidth to yet more unnecessary technology! It should be illegal for no other reason than bandwidth costs money. If it is going on stuff like this, that puts up costs for operators and owners.

If we got rid of this junk, I wonder just how much quicker the 'net would be?

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Vulcan.
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 3:03pm

Quote And that suggests that they're just potentially illegal, not actually illegal,

Yes that’s true Simon, typical media. I was aware of that, seems to be the way they work these days and not just the BBC. Whether illegal or not though many will find it worrying. Especially now that the guideline is that customers must be given the option to opt out.

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VulcanB2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VulcanB2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 3:04pm
Quote customers must be given the option to opt out.

But if it is an option to opt OUT, will they make this easy? Knowing BT, no.

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Vulcan.
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MartinW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MartinW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 3:10pm
In my view it should be opted out as default, and if you want in you opt in.
 
Apparently it will be the other way round though.
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