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Joe_London
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 10108
Loc: London
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Quote:
What do people think about BT, Virgin and Talk Talk (so far) signing up Phorm ( a company who's boss was responsible for some of the spyware we all hate).
Can you give us his name and the spyware you are referring to please?
I'm in contact with Virgin my ISP and they have confirmed their intention to introduce this. They have given this assurance though:
Quote:
you won't be forced to use the system, and you will be given the choice to keep your internet experience exactly as it is now. As we get closer to launch we'll explain how this will work.
Joe.
PS. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, its the first I've heard of it.
Edited by Joe_London (Mon Mar 31 2008 06:35 PM)
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Cheemag
new user
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 1
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Quote:
Quote:
What do people think about BT, Virgin and Talk Talk (so far) signing up Phorm ( a company who's boss was responsible for some of the spyware we all hate).
Can you give us his name and the spyware you are referring to please?
I'm in contact with Virgin my ISP and they have confirmed their intention to introduce this. They have given this assurance though:
Quote:
you won't be forced to use the system, and you will be given the choice to keep your internet experience exactly as it is now. As we get closer to launch we'll explain how this will work.
Joe.
PS. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, its the first I've heard of it.
The company's boss is a dubiously named Mr Ertugrul, who has links to 121 Media, an adware business.
What I do not understand (perhaps I've missed something), is that they say they do not know who you are, they do not take your IP address, yet they target you with tailored adverts. If they don't know who you are, how the hell can they target you with adverts?
As many IP addresses are not fixed but come from an ISP pool of IPs, what the hell use would that be in targetting adverts anyway?
They say you can opt out, but who's to know if opting out will have any more effect than ticking a box on a website to say you don't want adverts 'from carefully selected companies' has any effect. (For 'carefully selected companies' read 'We're going to sell your EMail address to whoever's prepared to pay for it, whether you tick the box or not".
There's something very fishy indeed about this whole business.
For what good it may do, go to the Downing Street website and sign the petition there, although I wouldn't be at all surprised if this business were to turn out to be a sneak initiative by the (spit!) government.
--
Cheemag.
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Joe_London
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 10108
Loc: London
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Good questions Cheemag.
Hope we can get some answers. Thanks for that information.
Joe.
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Doublell
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 461
Loc: Essex
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The government is always going about how important it is for new British citizens to obey the laws of the land. Well it seems to me that the actions of BT in gathering information about its customers' surfing habits, without first asking their permission, is not very British. Perhaps the government could stop BT using the word British in its name.
Whilst they're at it they could get rid of the flying pigs that keep bothering the pink elephants.
-------------------- 'the essential is invisible to the eyes'
Edited by Doublell (Thu Apr 03 2008 10:19 PM)
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predator
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 530
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Quote:
What I do not understand (perhaps I've missed something), is that they say they do not know who you are, they do not take your IP address, yet they target you with tailored adverts. If they don't know who you are, how the hell can they target you with adverts?
As many IP addresses are not fixed but come from an ISP pool of IPs, what the hell use would that be in targetting adverts anyway?
I believe they use cookies on your pc which will store information about the type of sites you've viewed.
http://www.badphorm.co.uk/page.php?3
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predator
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 530
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The latest news - the Information Commissioners Office has ruled that Phorm must operate an opt-in system instead of their planned opt-out system in order to comply with data protection laws
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7339263.stm
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Joe_London
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 10108
Loc: London
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PHORM CEO: WE CAN REVOLUTIONISE ADVERTISING Controversial system to benefit less-popular sites http://email.pcadvisor.co.uk/go.asp?/bPCA001/qGIKL6/x3EO2C
Plus links to other articles.
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bricat
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Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 27406
Loc: belfast
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I've just found WEBWISE.NET cookies on my computer in ccleaner. I have now blocked them in the hosts file, but just wondering where they came from, have virgin sneaked this in without us knowing. ?
-------------------- MY HELP IS FREE,BUT PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING A DONATION TO HELP IN MY FIGHT AGAINST SPYWARE.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
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Joe_London
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 10108
Loc: London
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Thanks Brian, I'll keep an eye on that.
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FifeFlyer
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 3570
Loc: Fife
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Quote:
have virgin sneaked this in without us knowing. ?
Bricat , i think they've been doing it for a while now. I tried out the Dephormation Firfox add on for a few weeks , and was often receiving alerts that certain sites were using this method.
-------------------- http://www.thelost.org.uk/
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bricat
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 27406
Loc: belfast
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I've had the dephormation addon for firefox installed for a few weeks, that's why i'm wondering how they got in there.
-------------------- MY HELP IS FREE,BUT PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING A DONATION TO HELP IN MY FIGHT AGAINST SPYWARE.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
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ourstanley
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 7600
Loc: Yorkshire, England
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Thanks for the headsup Brian, now added. 
-------------------- ESET Smart Security - Maxthon Browser - Calendar of Updates - Folding@Home - RSS Bandit - HostsMan - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Glary Utilities - Revo Uninstaller - Secunia PSI
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FifeFlyer
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 3570
Loc: Fife
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bricat , i stopped using the add on when i realized there's many things it can't protect you from , such as instant messaging applications , RSS readers , Microsoft Office , external images embedded in HTML email etc etc. Don't know if in your case they could have found their way in via any of these .
-------------------- http://www.thelost.org.uk/
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bricat
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 27406
Loc: belfast
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It just shows how determined they are to get this rubbish on your computer.
-------------------- MY HELP IS FREE,BUT PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING A DONATION TO HELP IN MY FIGHT AGAINST SPYWARE.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
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FifeFlyer
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 3570
Loc: Fife
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Most definitely , and I'm convinced the ISP's are so desperate to continue that even when/if we get the option to opt out ( or not opt in as the case may be ) , they'll find a way to stealthily install this crap.
I'm away now to write an Anti-Phorm program.
-------------------- http://www.thelost.org.uk/
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