New Govt petition / British Telecom spying

DatabaseError

Browntoa wrote: »

sign up at any online shop, use a Tesco Clubcard, search on google, have a sky box and leave it plugged in
ALL the above log and use that data
can't see the problem.

true, tescos know what you buy, online shops know your card details, sky know what your watching, you can easily choose not to do any of these things, you can choose not to use your clubcard one day, preventing tesco from knowing that days transactions, it will be impossible to prevent phorm from knowing your internet habits, it will be impossible to bypass, and you only have the companies word that your online banking details won't be harvested and sold (perhaps by an enterprising phorm employee?), your emails read (corporate espionage?), your surfing monitored (blackmail?).
bt and others will convince the public that it is in their benefit to accept phorn

icefall

codger wrote: »

A number of UK ISPs, notably British Telecom, are intending to profit from routeing subscriber traffic through third-party computers based in China and owned and operated by a company in the tax haven of Delaware, USA.

The company is web ad delivery provider Phorm. The background of some of those associated with it does not make for comfortable reading.

BT (and other ISPs) are hoping to avoid UK privacy legislation as follows:

1) by saying the PHORM service is an opt-in;

2) that no personal information is transmitted.

In fact, the routeing of an individual subscriber's traffic through Phorm so that Phorm can sample and analyse a computer user's online behaviour, browsing habits, etc is a clear third-party intrusion.

Not only that: no traffic is excepted. Whether the user allows BT Internet to install a cookie on his / her home computer or not, their Internet usage will no longer be a matter between them and their ISP but between them, BT Internet, and Phorm, for which Phorm will pay considerable sums to British Telecom but nothing at all to the British Telecom customer.

A petition has now been organised in hope of raising the profile of this issue.

If as a UK consumer you care about your rights and your privacy, please spare a moment or two to add your name to the newly launched petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm

There's actually more to be saved here than money alone.

* Though as a MoneySaver tip, there can now be none better -- if you're a customer of British Telecom or Virgin -- than to ensure that you cancel their ISP service as soon as your contractual subscription period is at an end.

signed

I am not with any of these isp's, but invasion of privacy is a serious issue I think.

codger

Posts which say "don't moan / whine about it" are missing the point.

If you couldn't care less about privacy issues or corporate abuses, then it's quite right to do nothing at all except cease to deal with the abuser and hope others will exercise vigilance of ultimate benefit to yourself.

If you could care less, then spending a couple of minutes on a petition which isn't aiming to change the world but gather enough signatures to make the petition a news story in itself -- to the considerable embarrassment of British Telecom and other ISPs -- then that's going to be of help to many, not just yourself. (And having done that, also make sure you walk away from the Phorm-ridden ISP as soon as possible.)

As to ISPs and their expensive equipment: I'm aware of the overhead and why so many cheapo providers come and go because they can't sustain the stupidly low prices asked.

They should charge a fee to reflect that overhead: not seek to gain some kind of competitive advantage by subsidising those prices through back-door arrangements with outfits like Phorm.

Which I've no doubt is exactly what British Telecom and the other ISPs are hoping to do: use the income from Phorm to "cut" their prices in the months and years ahead so as to appear a better-buy than the competition.

Which, of course, is an invitation for that competition to go down the same route. . .

If that implication hasn't dawned on the quit-and-forget-it brigade, I'm really surprised.

(Phorm, incidentally, and as described by BT itself, is an opt-in service. Not an opt-out. But that's just semantics. Whether you're in or you're out, you're somewhere within Phorm's grubby hands. Unless this becomes the Public Relations disaster which British Telecom entirely deserves.)

BillScarab

Well put Codger.

As for being impossible to bypass, three are ways to avoid it. You could use Tor for instance. However it's a pain to have to go to such lengths to avoid something like this.

deary65

The [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Information Commissioner is on to them!
[/FONT][/FONT]

deary65

Forgot to add a link to the BT forum where this being debated, worryingly.

Browntoa

I'm assuming these guys

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

will update their hosts file to block this ( I use the hosts file,easiest way)

In many cases using a well designed HOSTS file can speed the loading of web pages by not having to wait for these ads, annoying banners, hit counters, etc. to load. This also helps to protect your Privacy and Security by blocking sites that may track your viewing habits, also known as "click-thru tracking" or Data Miners. Simply using a HOSTS file is not a cure-all against all the dangers on the Internet, but it does provide another very effective "Layer of Protection".
Editors Note: As time has progressed the focus of this project has changed from just blocking ads/banners to protecting the user from the many parasites that now exist on the Internet. It doesn't serve much purpose if you block the ad banner from displaying as most other HOSTS files do, but get hijacked by a parasite from an evil exploit or download contained on the web site. The object is to surf faster while preserving your Safety, Security and Privacy. /B][URL="http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/default.mspx"][U][COLOR=#0000ff][B]more info[/B][/COLOR][/U][/URL][B

BritBrat

Browntoa wrote: »

I'm assuming these guys

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

will update their hosts file to block this ( I use the hosts file,easiest way)

I have already updated my host file (I make my own) but I am not sure that will make much difference in this case.

But I don't use BT so not to worried about it at the moment.

theregister.co.uk: Data pimping: surveillance expert raises illegal wiretap worries

Note_for_people_with_large_hosts_file wrote:

NOTE:

It is important to note that there have been complaints of system slowdowns when using a large hosts file.
This is usually fixed by turning off and disabling the DNS Client in your Services control panel under Administrative Tools.
The DNS client caches previous DNS requests in memory to supposedly speed this process up, but it also reads the entire HOSTS file into that cache as well which can cause a slowdown.
This service is unnecessary and can be disabled.

albertross_2

An entry in hosts won't stop them collecting the data.

DatabaseError

brickbat, updating hosts wont make a difference
BillScarab, tor won't work either
all your network traffic has to be routed through your isp, it is here that phorn will intercept your data, any kind of proxy works after this step! updating hosts could prevent the ads from appearing, not the data from being collected. i suppose if it brings the issue to wider attention the petition may not be such a bad thing.