Posted under Internet & Software
BT (ISP) has “invited” 10,000 random internet users to participate in the latest trial of it’s Webwise system.
What is Phorm and what’s it all about ?
(mp3)
Each lucky user chosen will have seen the following interstitial advert (those annoying full page adverts) when they tried to surf the web…
BT Interstitial
As you can see BT have misrepresented the Webwise system as a security enhancement for better online protection. This online protection from fraudulent banking sites etc is already built into and active on 90% of users PC’s in the (ph)form of Internet Explorer 7, Firefox and Opera.
Opting in or out causes the system to drop a “cookie” on your PC to notify the system either your in or your out. They will still have to intercept your web browsing to determine the status of the cookie on your PC.
If you clear the cookie then the interstitial advert will pop back up asking you to opt in or out again. Blocking the cookie will be a very effective “denial of service” as the interstitial advert will continue to popup wherever you try to go!
What BT haven’t mentioned on the interstitial page is the fact that they will intercept the communications from your PC to the website and make a copy of the website that you have visited, modify that said page to change the advertising and then send the modified page onwards to yourself for viewing.
As far as I know, it’s illegal to intercept communications without the concent of both parties under the RIPA act.
Phorm has approached the Home Office directly about compliance with RIPA and had a written response. The gist of the response was that it was questionable whether the use of Phorm’s technology involves an interception within the meaning of RIPA and that even if it did that there would be an argument that such a interception was not unlawful. The Home Office went on to state that they did not consider that RIPA was intended to cover such situations. Some organisations have stressed an alternative view that the scanning of the content of websites by the ISP on route to the user will entail an interception of communication during transmission.
Here is a link to the actual RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act – 2000) http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000023_en_2
BT state that the Phorm system complies with RIPA, yet when I sent them a notice stating that if this site is copied for commercial gain (advertising profiling for Webwise), then I would prosecute them under the RIPA act as illegal interception. They replied very quickly that they would add my site to the Webwise blacklist preventing it from profiling this site or it’s data therein. So there, shove it up your Phorm!
Even if you opt out of the system your website traffic is still intercepted but not sent to the advertising profiler hardware.
If you have opted in or out of the Webwise system, I’d be greatful if you could post a comment on what you think of it so far ?
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