SP data deal with former 'spyware' boss triggers privacy fears

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk>
Date: February 27, 2008 6:51:07 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: SP data deal with former 'spyware' boss triggers privacy fears

Dave:

For IP if you wish - from The Register, 25 Feb 2008

Cheers

Brian

---

SP data deal with former 'spyware' boss triggers privacy fears

More than ten million customers of the UK's three largest ISPs will  
have their browsing habits sold to a company with roots in the murky  
world of spyware.

The deal has sparked fears over privacy, but today Phorm, the firm  
behind the new advertising system, strongly rejected such concerns.

BT, Virgin Media, and Carphone Warehouse have agreed to feed data on  
their subscribers' web activities to Phorm. Data will be fed into the  
Open Internet Exchange, Phorm's advertising network, where advertisers  
will pay to target interest groups. Frequent visits to the BBC's Top  
Gear site might result in being served up more car ads, for example.

In exchange, the ISP trio will get a cut of new revenue. Analysts  
estimate BT's cut will be £85m in 2010.

There's no word on when BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse will  
begin sending customers' browsing information; but now that the  
broadband business is a high-volume, low-margin business, it's no  
surprise the providers are hungry for extra cash flow. Their choice of  
partner is ringing alarm bells in some quarters, however.

Phorm is run by Kent Ertegrul, a serial entrepreneur whose past  
ventures include selling joyrides on Russian fighter jets. Previously,  
his most notable foray online was as the founder of PeopleOnPage, an  
ad network that operated earlier in the decade and which was  
blacklisted as spyware by the likes of Symantec and F-Secure.

Security firm F-Secure describes PeopleOnPage's software here.
Published Monday 25th February 2008 13:57 GMT
Download free whitepaper - Managing and Integrating Data in an SAP  
Environment

More than ten million customers of the UK's three largest ISPs will  
have their browsing habits sold to a company with roots in the murky  
world of spyware.

The deal has sparked fears over privacy, but today Phorm, the firm  
behind the new advertising system, strongly rejected such concerns.

BT, Virgin Media, and Carphone Warehouse have agreed to feed data on  
their subscribers' web activities to Phorm. Data will be fed into the  
Open Internet Exchange, Phorm's advertising network, where advertisers  
will pay to target interest groups. Frequent visits to the BBC's Top  
Gear site might result in being served up more car ads, for example.

In exchange, the ISP trio will get a cut of new revenue. Analysts  
estimate BT's cut will be £85m in 2010.

There's no word on when BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse will  
begin sending customers' browsing information; but now that the  
broadband business is a high-volume, low-margin business, it's no  
surprise the providers are hungry for extra cash flow. Their choice of  
partner is ringing alarm bells in some quarters, however.

Phorm is run by Kent Ertegrul, a serial entrepreneur whose past  
ventures include selling joyrides on Russian fighter jets. Previously,  
his most notable foray online was as the founder of PeopleOnPage, an  
ad network that operated earlier in the decade and which was  
blacklisted as spyware by the likes of Symantec and F-Secure.

<snip>

Full story at

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/25/phorm_isp_advertising/


--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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