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Deutsch: Britische ISPs geben Phorm auf

On 6 July 2009, just before the beginning of the investigation on Internet privacy by UK MPs and peers of the All Party Parliamentary Communications Group, the largest UK ISP British Telecom (BT) has announced it would not roll out Phorm's web monitoring and profiling system, Webwise, in its network.

Right after BT made this announcement, claiming that for the next three years it needed to focus on network upgrades, other two large ISPs in UK,Virgin Media and TalkTalk, declared they would not launch the system in the near future either. The three ISPs signed an agreement with Phorm in February 2008 but the system was fiercely criticized both by privacy campaigners and regulators.

This decision comes after EU's action to sue the UK government for failing to properly implement European privacy laws as a result of the discovery of the secret trials of Phorm performed by BT.

"We continue to believe the interest based advertising category offers major benefits for consumers and publishers alike. However, given our public commitment to developing next generation broadband and television services in the UK, we have decided to weigh up the balance of resources devoted to other opportunities. Given these resource commitments, we don't have immediate plans to deploy Webwise today. However, the interest based advertising market is extremely dynamic and we intend to monitor Phorm's progress with other ISPs and with Webwise Discover" (a new Phorm sideline in content technology) "before finalising our plans," was BT public statement.

BT's decision triggered similar decisions by the other two large ISPs who would have not been able to stand by Phorm on their own. "We continue to believe interest-based advertising has potentially important benefits for consumers, internet service providers and website owners. However, given the fast moving nature of the sector, Virgin Media intends to extend its review of potential opportunities with suppliers, including Phorm, prior to making any commitment to launch any of these technologies. We recognise some consumers have significant concerns about the potential implications of interest-based advertising for their privacy. Virgin Media is committed to ensuring that any future deployment complies not only with the relevant legal requirements but - as an absolute minimum - the best practice guidelines contained in the Internet Advertising Bureau's recently published code of practice," stated Virgin Media.

During the all-party parliamentary group on communications on 6 July, Peter John, who runs the Dephormation campaigning website, told MPs that Phorm's technology was "mass industrial espionage - the only beneficiaries from this system are the media companies".

Sarah Simon, Phorm's financial, strategic and policy development officer, stated to the meeting that the company's technology not only was in agreement with the UK's data protection laws but actually exceeded them. The system would give consumers a clear opt out choice which many other online advertising platforms do not.

The UK EDRi-member Open Rights Group welcomed BT's decision as a "victory for privacy" and commented: "Phorm will remain a threat to our fundamental rights while they offer services that intercept communications without the consent of all parties."

Although the Phorm shares have dropped severly after the BT announcement, the company declared the indefinite delay of the launch of its service in the UK was not a such a serious blow as discussions are in progress with other potential partners in 15 other countries and, for instance, it has already made a deal with South Korea's largest ISP.

BT abandons Phorm (6.07.2009)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=10146

BT's decision to ditch Phorm is a victory for privacy (6.07.2009)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2009/07/bts-decision-to-ditch-phorm-is-...

Phorm dealt major blow as TalkTalk drops Webwise (7.07.2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/07/carphone-warehouse-talk...

EDRI-gram: Infringement procedure against UK for lack of privacy protection (22.04.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.8/phorm-investigated-european-co...