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Cogeco Metered Billing Goes Live, Confuses Customers
,----[ Quote ]
| Back in April, Canadian cable operator Cogeco hoisted metered billing on the
| back of their customers, applying caps as low as 10GB per month and overages
| as high as $2.50 a month on top of existing tiers. When customers complained,
| Cogeco insulted customer intelligence by insisting the move wasn't about
| making money. Cogeco then decided to raise monthly rates as well, just for
| good measure.
`----
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Cogeco-Metered-Billing-Goes-Live-Confuses-Customers-103102
Rogers Again Injects Web Pages With Its Own Content
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| Canadian Internet watchers may recall a controversy in late 2007 when Rogers
| began experimenting with adding its own content to webpages that its
| subscribers visit. The company used the technology to alert customers about
| their data usage. Google was one of the targets of the experiments and the
| company reacted angrily...
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4083/125/
Recent:
BT accused of download throttling
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| Britain's biggest broadband supplier has been accused of limiting download
| speeds on its cheapest package without giving users a clear warning.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8077839.stm
Meet Phorm's PR genius
,----[ Quote ]
| Well, Phorm's public image has had a bit of bother from the European
| Commission, so it would sort of make sense.
|
| And this couldn't be the same "PR guru" Patrick Robertson who orchestrated
| the £200,000 campaign by Tory grandees against the extradition of ex-Chilean
| dictator General Augusto Pinochet, could it?
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/30/phorm_patrick_robertson/
Using the Internet To Subvert Democracy
,----[ Quote ]
| All the recent talk about various polls and elections being pranked or
| hijacked, serious and silly alike, prompted me to write an article about the
| technical realities behind online polling, and the political fallout of ever
| becoming subject to online voting for serious elections
`----
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/28/2355257
Brits Back Away From 'Big Brother' Data Storage Plan
,----[ Quote ]
| The government said in October it was considering a central database of phone
| and Internet traffic as part of a high-tech strategy to fight terrorism and
| crime.
|
| However, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Monday the plan had been dropped.
`----
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/66917.html
Foolish Phorm
,----[ Quote ]
| Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. “Smear campaign” - not much constructive
| engagement there with your critics there, is there? And what on earth
| are “privacy pirates”? People who steal privacy? Er, wouldn't that be Phorm?
|
| And if you have any doubt that Phorm is totally clueless about how to deal
| with the criticism it is receiving over its activities, you only have to
| notice the “Get the Facts” button attached to the alleged instances
| of “smears”: didn't they notice the blanket ridicule that was poured on
| Microsoft's similar attempt to spin?
|
| And what might those “smears” be?
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2144&blogid=14
Phorm and the Home Office: cold comfort to citizens
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| You’ll probably have read today that leaked emails have shown that the Home
| Office worked with Phorm to offer advice that would give “comfort” to their
| investors. We condemn this approach to law enforcement: the Home Office’s job
| is to uphold the law: not to reinterpret it for commercial interests.
`----
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2009/04/28/phorm-and-the-home-office/
Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'
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| The Home Office has been accused of colluding with online ad firm Phorm
| on "informal guidance" to the public on whether the company's service is
| legal.
|
| E-mails between the ministry and Phorm show the department asking if the firm
| would be "comforted" by its position.
|
| The messages show Phorm making changes to the guidance sought by the
| ministry.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8021661.stm
Plan to monitor all internet use
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| Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between
| people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8020039.stm
Britain in the dock over secret tracking of internet accounts
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| Fears that Britain is slipping into a surveillance society have been
| heightened by Brussels initiating legal action after declaring that UK laws
| guaranteeing data protection were “structurally flawed” and well below the
| European standard.
`----
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6097384.ece
EC starts legal action over Phorm
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| The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over the
| online advertising technology Phorm.
|
| It follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioural advertising service
| was tested on BT's broadband network without the consent of users.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7998009.stm
EU slaps UK over Phorm fiasco
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/760/1051760/eu-slaps-uk-phorm-fiasco
Brussels to sue UK over Phorm failures
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/14/eu_phorm_formal/
EU Probes UK Over Internet Privacy
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/04/14/eu-probes-uk-over-internet-privacy
Wikimedia becomes latest to ban Phorm
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| The Wikimedia Foundation has asked Phorm to exclude all its domains and
| websites - including Wikipedia - from Phorm's BT trials, because it considers
| such scanning to be an infringement of its users' privacy.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/17/wikimedia_phorm/
Wikimedia Foundation opting out of Phorm
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/wikimedia-opting-out-of-phorm/
Amazon blocks Phorm adverts scan
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| Amazon has said it will not allow online advertising system Phorm to scan its
| web pages to produce targeted ads.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7999635.stm
Phorm director advises UK.gov broadband minister
,----[ Quote ]
| The Commission yesterday began infringement proceedings against the UK over
| the lack of a regulatory response to BT and Phorm's secret trials of internet
| interception and profiling technology in 2006 and 2007. The Department for
| Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) is coordinating the
| government's response, which if unsatisfactory could lead to heavy fines from
| the European Court of Justice.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/15/kip_meek_berr/
Phorm eyes launch after hard year
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| Online advertising firm Phorm is pressing ahead with plans to launch more
| than a year after it first drew criticism from some privacy advocates.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7988154.stm
Big websites urged to avoid Phorm
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| Seven of the UK's biggest web firms have been urged to opt out of a
| controversial ad-serving system.
|
| Phorm - aka Webwise - profiles users' browsing habits and serves up adverts
| based on which sites they visit.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7959099.stm
Phorm CEO clashes with Berners-Lee at Parliament
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| Berners-Lee gave a passionate explanation of why he does not believe ISPs
| should on principle be allowed to intercept and profile their customers'
| internet usage. "It is very important that when click we click without a
| thought that a third party knows what we're clicking on," he said. "I have
| come here to defend the internet as a medium."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/11/phorm_berners_lee_westminster/
Uh oh, Google goes all Phorm on your ass
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| Of course Phorm is not alone in the behavioral advertising space, but it has
| pretty much dominated the media coverage of the market since it started. The
| British police even got involved after British Telecom conducted secret Phorm
| trials.
|
| Now Phorm can probably breathe a sigh of relief as someone more headline
| worthy enters the 'we will track your browsing patterns and throw adverts at
| you that are the best fit' market. That someone, unfortunately, being Google.
|
| Google has kind of quietly announced, via the official blog, that it will
| be 'making ads more interesting.' I can only assume that was a display of
| irony on the part of the writer at Google, one Susan Wojcicki, VP of Product
| Management.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23766/1054/
Phorm Phorces Which? To Retract Critical Survey, Uses Defamation Threat
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| The retraction came in so quick, we hadn’t even seen the original press
| release. Under legal pressure, consumer mag Which? on Wednesday hastily
| called back a survey it issued indicating public opposition to on-ISP
| behavioural ad targeter Phorm. Which? sent the following statement…
|
| “Urgent withdrawal of press release from Which? - Internet users say: don’t
| sell my surfing habits. Which? has received further information and
| representations from Phorm about the proposed Webwise service, and it has
| agreed to withdraw the above press release, issued under embargo on 24
| February 2008, while we consider them. Some of the information in the press
| release and related article is said to be inaccurate and as a consequence may
| be defamatory. You are strongly urged not to write an article based on the
| press release or the related article ‘Online privacy matters’ in Which?
| magazine.”
`----
http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-phorm-phorces-which-to-retract-critical-survey-uses-defamation-threat/
More execs quit Phorm
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| When half of Phorm's board quit earlier this month, it was spun as a strategy
| disagreement between the US and UK operations. But now the firm's
| London-based UK chief executive has quit too, along with its chief
| beancounter.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/18/phorm_departures/
Bad Phorm: UK Police give green light to Internet spying
,----[ Quote ]
| The email is quoted by El Reg and states that "it has been decided that no
| Criminal Offence has been committed" and there was a "lack of Criminal Intent
| on behalf of BT and Phorm Inc in relation to the tests."
|
| The best bit, though, is the revelation that BT customers would have given
| implied consent to being spied upon without their knowledge because the aim
| of the tests was to enhance product quality.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20759/1054/
Police close file on BT's trials
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| The City of London Police have said there will be no formal investigation of
| BT over its secret trials of an ad monitoring system.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7634210.stm
Phorm secretly tracked Americans too
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| of British Telecom customers as part of its grand scheme to target online ads
| from inside the world's ISPs, it was "operating a number of public commercial
| services" on various stateside networks.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/13/phorm_us_tests/
Spy fear over e-mail check plan
,----[ Quote ]
| Plans to give local councils and other public bodies the power to monitor
| e-mail and internet traffic have been branded a "snoopers' charter".
|
| The government wants to make it mandatory for phone and internet companies to
| store all information on personal web use for 12 months.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7557963.stm
Bad Phorm: EU demands UK Government response on intrusive web ad tracking
technology
,----[ Quote ]
| Controversial behavioral advertising targeting outfit Phorm, whose Webwise ad
| technology monitors user browsing habits to serve appropriate advertising
| messages, might have dragged the UK Government into a slugfest with the
| European Union over a possible breach of strict Euro data laws...
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19884/1054/
Controversial Ad Network Caught Editing Wikipedia
,----[ Quote ]
| Phorm has been beset by controversy for years over its business model and
| quietly-run trials on British Telecom's (BT) broadband service.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/04/08/controversial-ad-network-caught-editing-wikipedia
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