phorm/webwise

Hanco

markyboy7 wrote: »

I just love this chart of the Phorm/webwise share price.:D

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:PHRM.L&display=chart&it=le

Off topic alert (sorry, I shall have to search MSE site for more on this) but... if I buy a shares ISA, I assume that I can specify the tech stocks they put into it? Would rather ensure that Phorm Webwise (and even BT right now!) shares were not in any way involved. Just too risky!!!

Hanco

ElCheapo_2

OF1975 wrote: »

Not only your blood pressure but I suspect certain BT and Phorm executives blood pressure has risen over the last few months with all the bad publicity and threats of legal action. Time to check the post.

That's my idea of poetic justice. :j:beer:

I've been trying to explain this to my two cousins but they aren't net savvy and I don't think they fully understood my privacy concerns. Can someone put their finger on an ultra simple non-tech 3 paragraph or less explanation of the basic issues that might be floating around the net? I hate having to try to reinvent the wheel.

Chroma

ElCheapo wrote: »

That's my idea of poetic justice. :j:beer:

I've been trying to explain this to my two cousins but they aren't net savvy and I don't think they fully understood my privacy concerns. Can someone put their finger on an ultra simple non-tech 3 paragraph or less explanation of the basic issues that might be floating around the net? I hate having to try to reinvent the wheel.

The phorm system is simmilar to the royal mail opening all your letters before delivering them to tell advertising companies what your interested in so they can post you junk mail based on your interests. Or alternatively: Phorm is like someone listening in on your phonecalls to friends/family, say you tell a story about a neighbours kid kicking his ball through your conservatories window. phorm would then passing all the details about the conversations over to advertisers who will then phone you up offering conservatories and double glazing.

Dangle

There was a quote from Phorm themselves published by the New York Times, that illustrates one of the concerns of many soon to be end-users:


"As you browse, we're able to categorize all of your Internet actions", said Virasb Vahidi, the chief operating officer of Phorm. "We actually can see the entire Internet".


You can read the article here:- A Company Promises the Deepest Data Mining Yet

Dephormation

normanmark wrote: »

Silly comment - they're not in business for fun are they?!

As for Phorm, it doesnt bother me. Theres a firefox plug-in which blocks it so i'm pretty sure theres going to be plenty of things available which will block them.

Hi Normanmark, I wrote the firefox plug-in.

Please don't rely on it to protect your privacy and security. Its a fig leaf and nothing more than that. It simply begs Phorm not to look at your data with every page request.

It offers almost no assurance of privacy protection, and certainly no security guarantee.

I'd strongly recommend, the best way to ensure your privacy, security, and online safety is a move to a quality ISP.

The AntiPhorm League would be a great place to start looking. I went with Aquiss, they've been brilliant, but I'm sure the others are as good.

Pete.

ElCheapo_2

Chroma wrote: »

The phorm system is simmilar to the royal mail opening all your letters before delivering them to tell advertising companies what your interested in so they can post you junk mail based on your interests. Or alternatively: Phorm is like someone listening in on your phonecalls to friends/family, say you tell a story about a neighbours kid kicking his ball through your conservatories window. phorm would then passing all the details about the conversations over to advertisers who will then phone you up offering conservatories and double glazing.

Thanks - that was brilliant and precisely what I needed. :T

markyboy7

Dephormation wrote: »

Hi Normanmark, I wrote the firefox plug-in.

Please don't rely on it to protect your privacy and security. Its a fig leaf and nothing more than that. It simply begs Phorm not to look at your data with every page request.

It offers almost no assurance of privacy protection, and certainly no security guarantee.

I'd strongly recommend, the best way to ensure your privacy, security, and online safety is a move to a quality ISP.

The AntiPhorm League would be a great place to start looking. I went with Aquiss, they've been brilliant, but I'm sure the others are as good.

Pete.

That's pretty definitive! Thanks Pete.

The big issue as I see it. Up to now we have been able to do things about viruses, spyware, adware etc. We could buy the appropriate security tools and keep them up to date. That way we keep our PC's clean.

With webwise the spyware is installed at the ISP, on the other end of the wire and we can't do anything about it. Unless we change ISP to a clean one, which may cost £££'s or stop it happening in the first place.

If the author of the most popular anti-phorm tool points out it's limitations, we better believe it.

Find out more here : http://www.inphormationdesk.org/

Sign the petition : http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/

OF1975

One of the worst things is that many people will be taking up new deals with the ISPs totally unaware of this issue and without understanding the ramifications and dangers inherent in the system. Does this mean that they will be locked into 12 month contracts when Phorm spyware is rolled-out?

markyboy7

OF1975 wrote: »

One of the worst things is that many people will be taking up new deals with the ISPs totally unaware of this issue and without understanding the ramifications and dangers inherent in the system. Does this mean that they will be locked into 12 month contracts when Phorm spyware is rolled-out?

That's a really good question. The best thing to do, I would have thought, would be to ring your ISP and ask them. Tell them your concerns about webwise and you don't want to be locked into any new contract because of it.

Someone told me to really check the terms and conditions well. Smell a rat if you see anything about 'sending your data overseas'. Lots of ISP's change the T&C's on the web knowing you will never look.

They certainly won't want people leaving when they have the chance to make so much money out of them.

If you are tied to a contract now, but are looking for a way out, I think you can use any significant changes in the T&C's as a reason to walk away without penalty.

Helix

markyboy7 wrote: »

That's a really good question. The best thing to do, I would have thought, would be to ring your ISP and ask them. Tell them your concerns about webwise and you don't want to be locked into any new contract because of it.

Someone told me to really check the terms and conditions well. Smell a rat if you see anything about 'sending your data overseas'. Lots of ISP's change the T&C's on the web knowing you will never look.

They certainly won't want people leaving when they have the chance to make so much money out of them.

If you are tied to a contract now, but are looking for a way out, I think you can use any significant changes in the T&C's as a reason to walk away without penalty.

Virgin Media have already changed theres.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/400/virgin-media-make-their-terms-and-conditions-phorm-friendly

So looks like they are more involved with phorm than they would like us to believe. Not saying they have started using it yet but I think they are further than just showing an interest.