ISPs make a profit selling our browsing history

Thought I would link to this in case you don't look in the security forum.
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=security&Number=3271364

Intresting but nothing much can come of it with the DPA and all.

Ah yes, how true.
We all know how good the private sector and the government are at sticking to data protection laws don't we.
How silly of me.

You think BT et al weren't aware of this when they signed the deal?

Regards,
Steve

Everyone seems to make money by abusing the public.

Try setting your "cookies" to accept 1st party (the site you ARE visiting) but to require authorisation before accepting 3rd party (sites that PAY to have cookies on your machine even if you do not visit them)
Now try to enter MS HOTMAIL, rejected "cookies MUST be enabled.

How much do MS get paid to undermine your computer security?
They think we should or could blindly trust them?

Funny you said that, just today I seen a bloke on the street corner flogging off two disks!!

It will be interesting, supposedly BT already monitored users internet usage and used it for advertising purposes. Whether or not they can say that Mr Smith at 5 Smith Gardens accesses this website at 8pm every night is another matter.

To some extent, you are all missing the point.

The point is that whether or not you block ads in your browser or choose to use Phorm's own opt-out facility, your browsing history and associated data will now also be held on some servers in the US.

These people aren't a trusted ISP: they're a company who has already tried to install rootkits on user's computers. Would you trust someone like that to behave ethically?

And let's not forget that Phorm proudly uses Windows Servers and we all know how difficult it is to crack those, don't we?

A few easily-blocked ads are the least of your worries.

Given the end-users contract in this case is with BT (in the BT section) if this third party acting on behalf of BT starts doing odd stuff the consumer would be taking BT to court over it - so onus is on the ISP to make sure they stay within UK law.

Where has it stated the service will use US servers? They seem to be abiding by UK law as registered under DPA.

Can I find out what PII Phorm Service keeps about me?
The Phorm Service is designed to avoid the collection and storage of PII, however you have the right to request a copy of any information that Phorm may have about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. A reasonable fee may be charged for information requests, and we reserve the right to request such evidence as we consider reasonably necessary in the circumstances to prove your identity We will use reasonable efforts to supply, correct or delete any information about you that Phorm may have.

For more information, please contact:

The Data Protection Officer
222 Liberty House
London W1B 5TR
[email protected]

How many people have thought about the issues of having overseas staff manning technical support lines? They probably have access to a lot more personal data.

As for Windows Servers - a great many places use them, so we see a great many sites vanishing every day? Or just the one or two head line grabbing ones?

"if this third party acting on behalf of BT starts doing odd stuff the consumer would be taking BT to court over it"
Oh, I'm sure that we'd all be getting adequate compensation for loss of personal data by suing our ISPs. Yeah, that'll be a fruitful exercise, I'm sure.

(Memo to self: find out how many people are suing the government for losing all that data on them there CDs.)

"Windows servers"
You don't think an entire ISPs data would be considered valuable by hackers? You think Phorm have the same sort of safeguards in place as, say, BT? Have you read the report by Ernst & Young on their data security?

In amongst all the waffle in<http://www.phorm.com/user_privacy/EY_Phorm_Exam.pdf>, there's an nice CYA bit which says:

Page 3, second last paragraph, first sentence -

"Because of inherent limitations in controls, error or fraud may occur and not be detected."

Oh well, that's all right then, isn't it?

Sorry to be so negative, but -- even without considering the ethical issues involved! -- I think that this is serious.

Will be inresting to see how ISP's handle the situation, as for windows server nowt wrong with Windows or Windows server. Its the apps that run on the computer which cause the problem, Linux and Max OSX have the exact same issues.