BadPhorm - When good ISPs go bad!

"http://www.golem.de/0803/58299.html" wrote ...


Phorm: InterNet advertisement will still more deeply go

Custom-made announcements owing to package inspection?

The Werbedienstleister Phorm wants to revolutionize the lucrative business with on-line advertisement with its OIX platform. Contracts with Internetprovidern permit in addition the direct access on the click Stream of the users to Phorm.

For the one it sounds like a further step for total InterNet monitoring, for the others like cash bells: Open InterNet Exchange, briefly OIX. Behind it a raid of the Werbedienstleisters Phorm hides itself to interconnect InterNet use and advertisement still more strongly. Agreements with Internetprovidern, which provide Phorm the direct entrance to the click Stream of the InterNet users, supply the key to it. A participation in turnover at the advertising business convinced the ISPs BT, talc talc as well as Virgin Media, which cover together approximately 70 per cent of the ISP business in Great Britain. The first advertising customers are already on board: FT.com; iVillage; Universal McCann; MGM OMD and Unanimis.

By means of OIX Phorm wants to analyze the behavior of the users in the InterNet by package inspection ("deep pack inspection"). Phorm gets the IP packages for haven 80 supplied in anonymizated form of the ISPs. Within OIX the packages are assembled and examined for keywords. "OIX can adjust the in such a way determined current context relevance with the behavior in the past to intend and deliver over for the user to most relevant advertisement".

Phorm promises thereby "a break-through for consumers and data-security commissioners, as irrelevant advertisement is reduced and a new ' gold standard ' for data security and anonymity" is created. According to statement of Phorm "OIX does not store identifiable personal data, IP addresses or data for Web use". However persistente Cookies is used. "target acquisition" see Phorm did not behavior-base a contradiction to the promised here obviously. Nevertheless the possibility is to be granted to the InterNet users, OIX "at arbitrary time of out or of switching on".

After becoming known Phorms plans in the middle of February 2008 meanwhile resistance moves in Great Britain. On the Website BadPhorm is called with the Internetprovider to weight as well as the commisioner for data protection and the delegates alarm. Phorm rejects the criticism. In the daily paper Guardian - likewise customer of OIX - is quoted Marc Burgess, CIO von Phorm, with the words: "our statements to the data security were examined by Ernst & Young. They our whole system regarded and can confirm that it does, what we say." Also data-security commissioners are to have been convinced according to Burgess by the concept.

It already gave secret tests in co-operation with British Telecom (BT) according to Guardian in the past summer. BT had at that time such tests abgestritten. This fact and Phorms past as a Spyware /Adware supplier with name 121Media might hardly create the doubts in the public from the world. [ of Robert A. Gehring ] (IP)

Oblonsky wrote ...

But generally seems a good idea of what is written