BT admits tracking 18,000 users with Phorm systems in 2006

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Brian Randell [Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk]
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 6:51 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: BT admits tracking 18,000 users with Phorm systems in 2006

Hi Dave:

I'm not sure whether you've already carried this story about BT's
secret trials of Phorm - it's one that seems to be building in the
media here.

This is from the (UK) Guardian, for IP if you wish.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/03/privacy.telecoms

> BT admits tracking 18,000 users with Phorm systems in 2006
>
>     * Charles Arthur
>     * The Guardian,
>     * Thursday April 3 2008
>
> This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday April 03 2008 on
> p3 of the Technology news & features section. It was last updated at
> 17:02 on April 03 2008.
>
> BT Broadband has admitted that it carried out secret trials on
> 18,000 user accounts in autumn 2006 with technology from 121Media,
> which became the targeted advertising company Phorm. Though BT has
> not yet said where the trials were done, the systems were used to
> analyse web traffic and then serve selected adverts on a number of
> selected websites.
>
> The revelation, first detailed on The Register website, might lead
> to legal action by any of the users who can show their data was
> used. That is because it appears to breach the Regulation of
> Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, which makes it an offence to
> intercept internet traffic without consent or a warrant.
>
> Phorm is negotiating a deal with BT, Virgin Media and Talk Talk, the
> UK's three largest ISPs with about 10m users. It would analyse web
> browsing and offer targeted adverts, as well as warning about
> phishing sites. Talk Talk has said it will make the service opt-in;
> BT has implied it will be opt-out. Virgin Media had no comment.
>
> BT's 2006 trials certainly involved some sort of interception,
> because the data streams had extra Javascript inserted into them -
> which puzzled a number of people at the time. Two examples can be
> seen at the forums of raisingkids.co.uk and progarchives.com. In
> both, the Javascript and other tags inserted by the 121Media system
> are clearly visible, with one showing the referring page and
> possibly "interests" of the member. Both contain links to sysip.net
> - the 121Media-owned site through which BT sent browser requests
> during the 2006 trials and later ones in summer 2007.
>
> BT declined to comment beyond a prepared statement, saying: "The
> purpose of the test was to evaluate the functional and technical
> performance of the platform. It is important for BT to ensure that
> before any new technologies are deployed, they are robust and fit
> for purpose. No personally identifiable information was processed,
> stored or disclosed during this test."
>
> But serious questions remain. BT said that the test was only carried
> out for two weeks - yet the second forum posting above was made in
> December 2006.
>
> Last week Guardian News and Media, which publishes the Guardian,
> announced that it would not pursue any advertising tie-up with
> Phorm, after having initially expressed an interest. "We have
> concluded at this time that we do not want to be part of the
> network," said Simon Kilby, GNM's advertising manager. "Our decision
> was in no small part down to the conversations we had internally
> about how this product sits with the values of our company."
>
> Phorm says its technology means adverts can be better targeted to
> individuals, by creating "profiles" of their browsing behaviour
> while not retaining any personally identifiable information; users
> are identified by randomly-numbered browser cookies, whose number
> matches to a profile on the Phorm system. Adverts could be better
> targeted, and because it monitors the sites people visit, could also
> warn users about known phishing sites.
>
> This article was amended on Thursday April 3 2008. In it we
> misspelled Simon Kilby's name as Philby. This has been corrected.

Cheers

Brian



--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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