Guardian dumps Phorm

The Guardian which was signed up to OIX, has apparently decided that Phorm does not sit with its values and has backed out of the agreement.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/26/guardian_phorm_uturn/

As one of the commenters on elReg points out, they are still dealing with AT&T in the US so they may be back in another form (sorrry!).

Interesting to see the divergence in the comments Guardian vs Phorm

What I think is even more interesting is how equivocal some of the ISPs have been over on the badphorm site. Very few appear to have explicitly ruled it out, preferring to hide behind boilerplate letters about privacy.

I've come to the conclusion that some of the better ISPs PR folks have been asleep at the wheel. A huge PR and marketing opportunity (we just said no....) going begging.

In reply to:

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in another form (sorrry!)

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That pun is in a class of its own.

Perhaps they're more concerned with the financial opportunity if they just keep quiet and slip it in when the fuss dies down (if it does and the product doesn't).

I don't think Phorm or the Guardian are the issue.

The data being supplied belongs to US (the user) not the ISP. They are the ones taking advantage and should be stopped.

Personally I hope one goes ahead and the execs are arrested for interception of communications and prosecuted.

Not going to happen in "business friendly Britain".

I would imagine the technology now exists for the Post Office to read and record the "from address" inside every letter without opening it, together with the "To address" on the outside.

If they announced they were going to do that, filter the results just to give the data of letters to businesses, then sell that to advertisers, imagine the riot.

sounds a bit like most search engines.

In reply to:

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I don't think Phorm or the Guardian are the issue.

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I agree they're not the issue. However it's good to see that someone has backed down. Maybe if the ISPs realise this is a PR disaster they'll do the same. However in 'business friendly' Britain we're all simply consumer units, only there to be milked.