theregister.co.uk has provided details of BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse’s plans to hand supposedly “anonymized” customer web usage data over to Phorm, a third party advertising broker.
If you use one of these providers, you really need to have a read of this article. It’s generating a large number of concerned comments as I write this.
What’s more, it’s looking increasingly likely that BT (at least) has already handed over data to Phorm without consulting its customers!
As I asked rhetorically in a comment left (currently in moderation) on the above page, what’s the difference between handing over “anonymized” HTTP data and handing over “anonymized” voice data? If the former comes to pass, how long before the latter?
EDIT: The more I read about this, the worse it gets:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/25/phorm_isp_advertising/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/29/phorm_broadband_isp_targets/
EDIT 2:
Looks like my post title wasn’t as original as I thought:
http://www.badphorm.co.uk/
EDIT 3:
A recent comment titled “Internal BT worries” left by an anonymous source on the theregister.co.uk may shed some light on BT’s current internal position on this:
I wouldn’t normally do the Anonymous Coward thing but …..
Looking around on the BT Intranet this article has come up a few times and there is definitely some internal worry about the publicity elements. BT Security have also (but not formally) hinted at concerns about the offshoring of this data.
The standard internal answer is currently:
“People have wildly different feelings about this
Actually, if used properly it can be a huge advantage for the customer
Others like you feel different
We will monitor this carefully and see what the experience in practice will be and evluate seriously”
It’s down as a priority delivery for Q4 2008.
For the Wholesale query above this is definitely a BT Retail initiative.