[IP] BT admits tracking 18,000 users with Phorm systems in 2006

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Brian Randell [Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk]
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 6:51 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: BT admits tracking 18,000 users with Phorm systems in 2006

Hi Dave:

I'm not sure whether you've already carried this story about BT's
secret trials of Phorm - it's one that seems to be building in the
media here.

This is from the (UK) Guardian, for IP if you wish.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/03/privacy.telecoms

>BT admits tracking 18,000 users with Phorm systems in 2006
>
>     * Charles Arthur
>     * The Guardian,
>     * Thursday April 3 2008
>
>This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday April 03 2008 on
>p3 of the Technology news & features section. It was last updated at
>17:02 on April 03 2008.
>
>BT Broadband has admitted that it carried out secret trials on
>18,000 user accounts in autumn 2006 with technology from 121Media,
>which became the targeted advertising company Phorm. Though BT has
>not yet said where the trials were done, the systems were used to
>analyse web traffic and then serve selected adverts on a number of
>selected websites.
>
>The revelation, first detailed on The Register website, might lead
>to legal action by any of the users who can show their data was
>used. That is because it appears to breach the Regulation of
>Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, which makes it an offence to
>intercept internet traffic without consent or a warrant.
>
>Phorm is negotiating a deal with BT, Virgin Media and Talk Talk, the
>UK's three largest ISPs with about 10m users. It would analyse web
>browsing and offer targeted adverts, as well as warning about
>phishing sites. Talk Talk has said it will make the service opt-in;
>BT has implied it will be opt-out. Virgin Media had no comment.
>
>BT's 2006 trials certainly involved some sort of interception,
>because the data streams had extra Javascript inserted into them -
>which puzzled a number of people at the time. Two examples can be
>seen at the forums of raisingkids.co.uk and progarchives.com. In
>both, the Javascript and other tags inserted by the 121Media system
>are clearly visible, with one showing the referring page and
>possibly "interests" of the member. Both contain links to sysip.net
>- the 121Media-owned site through which BT sent browser requests
>during the 2006 trials and later ones in summer 2007.
>
>BT declined to comment beyond a prepared statement, saying: "The
>purpose of the test was to evaluate the functional and technical
>performance of the platform. It is important for BT to ensure that
>before any new technologies are deployed, they are robust and fit
>for purpose. No personally identifiable information was processed,
>stored or disclosed during this test."
>
>But serious questions remain. BT said that the test was only carried
>out for two weeks - yet the second forum posting above was made in
>December 2006.
>
>Last week Guardian News and Media, which publishes the Guardian,
>announced that it would not pursue any advertising tie-up with
>Phorm, after having initially expressed an interest. "We have
>concluded at this time that we do not want to be part of the
>network," said Simon Kilby, GNM's advertising manager. "Our decision
>was in no small part down to the conversations we had internally
>about how this product sits with the values of our company."
>
>Phorm says its technology means adverts can be better targeted to
>individuals, by creating "profiles" of their browsing behaviour
>while not retaining any personally identifiable information; users
>are identified by randomly-numbered browser cookies, whose number
>matches to a profile on the Phorm system. Adverts could be better
>targeted, and because it monitors the sites people visit, could also
>warn users about known phishing sites.
>
>This article was amended on Thursday April 3 2008. In it we
>misspelled Simon Kilby's name as Philby. This has been corrected.

Cheers

Brian



--
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/people/brian.randell

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