Phorm

A few years back, BT had decided to implement the Phorm software which would monitor and track an individuals browsing history and present ads to that user that might have been relevant.

There was an almighty uproar with various threats and potential legal action about invasion/loss of privacy. BT finally stepped down and withdrew.

Now we get Google doing exactly the same, but why has there not been the same level of complaints?


Thoughts ...

Google was doing all this back in the day when Phorm was heavily on the agenda.

Google does cute graphics on its homepage and is seen as cute and cuddly

Because Phorm was an ISP doing deep packet inspection to obtain the information. Google are only using information you have knowingly and willingly given to them by asking them to find links it.

Edit - Chrome effects not known by me. If that does it, bad news!

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 07-Jan-13 10:21:29)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Because Phorm was an ISP doing deep packet inspection to obtain the information. Google are only using information you have knowingly and willingly given to them by asking them to find links it.

And surprise, surprise, I have just had some more "asian bride" adverts appear. Co-incidence or based on my posts about them? And I have NEVER asked for any searches that could in any way be legitimately linked to that sort of site.

And yet people are surprised when I say I won't even touch an Android phone.

Coincidence. You imply that I have done such searches! I shall sue for defamation .

By the way, I added a bit about Chrome that you may not have seen.

AdWords is NOT just about searches, it takes into account sites you have been to that are also part of the AdWords network.

Google uses the Cookies set by the sites you have visited.

Don't forget you can always 'opt out':
www.google.com/ads/preferences

Or ypu can *really* opt out

http://www.trishtech.com/internet/redirect_block_sit...

google can never been seen as wrong it seems.

I have seen a few bloggers tho who have posted that they scared to criticise google because their income comes from google.

In reply to a post by b4dger:

Don't forget you can always 'opt out':
www.google.com/ads/preferences

Hmm, blank page. But then that's not unexpected, as Kaspersky blocks google.com/ads/*

I haven't seen any ads from google for years, or for that matter, ads in general.

The problem was - As I Understand it - Phorm has its snout buried deep inside the ISP infrastructure and was able to see all of your traffic and had the potential to build an extremely personal and invasive profile of the user (lets leave the arguments about legality out of this - we all know by now big business isn't concerned about that while it has a good supply of paid for politicians in its pocket)

At least with Google etc I can (and have) set my browser to delete all cookies etc when I close - I can run various malware and adware programs across my system, and generally have the chance to manage what is recorded on a longer term basis.

agreed, Phorm was going to take all the traffic between you and your ISP and analyse it, Google can't do that unless you're opting in exclusively to their products and "ecosystem".

The Chromium browser is the open source variant of Google Chrome so what it gets up to is visible if you have the skills and intellect. Phorm would be invisible / unknowable to the user.