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UK ISP's in data privacy sell off shocka

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  • 29-02-2008 3:05pm
    #1
    BigEejit
    Registered Users Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭


    See http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33628733-virgin-media-ad-deal-updated-see.html

    and
    http://www.badphorm.co.uk/page.php?2

    Basically, a company (Phorm) with dodgy credentials is in talks with VM, TT and BT to get browser history from the ISP's and then serve ads based on that.

    I know, I know, people will think "its over the water what the hell do we here in Ireland care about that". In that case i would ask you to look at the companies again, Virgin Media, BT and Carphone Warehouse/TalkTalk .... I would say its only a matter of time before they chance their arms in Ireland.


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    #2
    jor el
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,713 ✭✭✭✭jor el


    Not wanting to read the excessively large threads there, have you any idea how this will work? Surely the targeted ads sent to you would only come from websites that have ads hosted by Phorm, and if you blocked Phorm then you wouldn't see any of them.

    I see it says in the article that the information will be passed on in real time, so I guess if the IP address is being fed through with this, they can check if that IP is getting ads from any of their servers right now and target the ad based on the users history. But if IP changes, for anyone on DHCP, would the history not be invalid to the adserver?

    Bad form anyway, hopefully this will get a swift kick and not be considered any further, or over here.


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    #3
    BigEejit
    Registered Users Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭BigEejit


    jor el wrote: »
    Not wanting to read the excessively large threads there, have you any idea how this will work? Surely the targeted ads sent to you would only come from websites that have ads hosted by Phorm, and if you blocked Phorm then you wouldn't see any of them.
    The ads would come from the Open Internet Exchange (OIX), there are a lot of advertisers using this, the consensus seems to be that the targeted ads will only come into play on sites that use OIX ....but its obvious that a lot of sites will gravitate to this bunch when this goes live.
    I see it says in the article that the information will be passed on in real time, so I guess if the IP address is being fed through with this, they can check if that IP is getting ads from any of their servers right now and target the ad based on the users history. But if IP changes, for anyone on DHCP, would the history not be invalid to the adserver?
    Because of data protection laws they would not be given your internet address, but they would get a number that corresponds to you. One of the things that gets peoples backs up is that it will get your emails etc which means that they could personally identify you with a large enough data set.
    Bad form anyway, hopefully this will get a swift kick and not be considered any further, or over here.
    What really REALLY bugs me is that there is an opt out, but from the OIX .... my ISP will continue sending my pages/emails/whatever to Pharm who I have to trust will not be bold and continue parsing information about me and my online habits


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