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Is it wise for ISPs to adopt Webwise Advertising?

Posted Mar 11th 2008, 10:35 by PaulGardner

Your reputation precedes you, Mr Ertugrul

The topic of obtrusive advertising on the Internet has always been controversial and Kent Ertugrul - Phorm's CEO - has been at the forefront of this area in the past planting pop-up adverts in personal computers with sophisticated but notorious 'spyware'.

The Mail on Sunday went as far as to highlight Phorm's links with Russia in an article stating:

"The development team for the new software was recruited from Moscow's elite Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering, a vital part of of the Cold War spying effort and still a centre for developing Russia's 'national security' computer systems."

But it could be said that because of the history of controversy surrounding this topic - and of Ertugrul's past part in that history - people are quick to come to their own conclusions of how this system will actually work.

To try and overcome this issue Phorm conducted a public question and answer session which seemed to indicate that some of what has been reported in the press is not factually correct. For instance if you choose to opt-out of this scheme - and Phorm state that users will be given frequent opportunities to do so - your data will stop being sent to Phorm, contrary to the believed situation of data still being sent, but ignored.

Ertugral goes on to say:

"... you should be aware that we have spent an enormous amount of time, as have our ISP partners, verifying that all of our activities are fully compliant with all regulation. I believe that it is reasonable to suggest that if BT, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse are all participating, it is because they have fully satisfied themselves of the legality of their decision."

Simon Davies and Gus Hosein, respected campaigners for privacy, were invited by Phorm to assess its privacy protection measures and, with regards to the system being able to anonymise the data it collects, Davies has been quoted as saying:

"We were impressed with the effort that had been put into minimising the collection of personal information."

With this in mind it seems it all boils down to making sure users are aware that they are participating in this scheme and that they can opt-out of it at any time. Will the three ISPs do so? Only time will tell but it will be interesting to see the percentage of users who are happy for this data to be collected.

Source - bbc.co.uk

Original source of story taken from article in the technology section of the bbc.co.uk website.

Phorm - the company who created the advertising system

Read more about the software on the creators website, who claim "Our platform gives consumers advertising that's tailored to their interests - in real time - with irrelevant ads replaced in the process."

BadPhorm - A campaign group against the software

A UK group promoting the signing of a petition asking "... the Prime Minister to Stop ISP's from breaching customers privacy via advertising technologies".

Tags: webwise phorm isps security

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