Further to my comments on Phorm, Simon Davies seems convinced that privacy is not going to be an issue:
Campaigner Simon Davies said: “We were impressed with the effort that had been put into minimising the collection of personal information.”
That, we had already established. However, consumers may not be so easily convinced:
“The problem is that may not be good enough for consumers.”
He added: “Behavioural advertising is a rather spooky concept for many people.”
Indeedy – and, as I pointed out when discussing this before; many of us just don’t want advertisements thrust in our faces, so gathering information in order to target advertising at us based upon our web browsing habits is a pointless exercise. I use Adblock with Firefox – I don’t want my browsing experience used as a platform for advertisers to shill their wares, so I block all of them.
The crux hinges on two points; exactly what and how much information is being gathered (and is it legal?), and crucially will it be opt-in or opt-out?
Mr Davies said the onus would be on Internet Service Providers to ensure customers had enough information about the scheme in order to have “informed consent”.
He said unless ISPs were extremely clear they could run foul of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
“RIPA is pretty clear that the provision for notification for consent, and informed consent, have to be extremely clear,” he said.
A spokesman for BT said it was confident that Phorm met all applicable regulations and laws.
Well, the would say that, wouldn’t they?
And opt-in or opt-out?
The spokesman for BT said the firm had made no decision about whether a wider deployment of Phorm would be opt in or opt out.
Ah. Right. So that’ll be opt-out, then, will it?
My position remains the same; if my ISP signs up to this, they lose my custom with immediate effect. When I buy a service from them, I am not volunteering my web browsing as a source of advertising revenue.
Phorm may well preserve Internet users’ privacy, but that is only one part of the problem – I don’t want the advertising at all. And, going by the reactions of others I’ve come across, it seems that I am far from alone.