Phlight of the URLs: BT banjacks Phorm

Posted by Paul Quigley 2nd September 2009

Reports that BT is distancing itself from controversial web monitoring firm Phorm emerged last week, changes which coincided with start warnings from father-of-the-web Sir Tim Berners-Lee that web privacy was sacrosanct and that the web should be “like a blank piece of paper”.

With the only other internet service provider Virgin Media yet to announce whether it will continue working with Phorm, it seems Sir Richard Branson could get caught out alone, since Carphone Warehouse‘s TalkTalk also seems to have no immediate plans to unleash Phorm onto its customers.

That said, the matter is not yet entirely over. According to recent reports, Phorm is planning trials of its controversial monitoring in the Far East, while thus far, it has had not commercial takers anywhere else in the world.

Whether or not you fall into the camp of privacy advocate like Berners-Lee or commercial exploitation of webuser’s clicking habits, the jury is still very much out on Phorm’s future. With ripostes such as www.badphorm.co.uk and counter-ripostes at stopphoulplay.co.uk for example, not to mention reportage at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/phorm/ which seems to be following the minute machinations of the case, the over-arching net effect will doubtless be of interest to creators and managers of content – as this seems to form (sic) the core of what the behavioural tracking of such systems hinges on.

As they might say down at Phorm, pheel phree to email us if you have any burning issues you pheel should be aired and we’ll do our best to phind a slot in our phinite schedule to phurnish those phacts on our phriends going phorwards.

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