Phorm attacks 'smear campaign'

Phorm, the company behind the controversial targeted advertising platform Webwise, has launched a website aimed at tackling what it sees as a "smear" campaign.

StopPhoulPlay.com contains information about several privacy bodies and campaigners who Phorm thinks are determined to bring the company down.

"Over the last year Phorm has been the subject of a smear campaign orchestrated by a small but dedicated band of online 'privacy pirates' who appear very determined to harm our company," the site says.

Privacy International (PI), the Open Rights Group (ORG), the Federation for International Policy Research (FIPR) and prominent privacy campaigner Alexander Hanff all come in for criticism on the site.

Complaints and criticisms made by the various bodies and individuals are directly addressed on the StopPhoulPlay site.

Media
Technology news website The Register and industry journal New Media Age (NMA) are also targeted.

NMA was forced to print a retraction earlier this week after Phorm pointed out inaccuracies in a story stating that the company's relationship with ISP Virgin Media had broken down.

"The article incorrectly stated that Virgin Media was seeking alternatives and to distance itself from Phorm and wouldn’t be proceeding with the contract it had entered into with the company," NMA said.

"We now accept that this is wrong and that Phorm’s relationship with Virgin Media is unchanged. We have been asked to make clear that BT’s contract with the company remains in place and its relationship with Phorm is unchanged. We are happy to set the record straight," the statement continued.

Freedom of Information
The site's launch comes hours after the BBC revealed that emails between the company and the Home Office have been released into the public domain under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the BBC, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokeswoman Baroness Sue Miller has accused the Home Office and Phorm of collusion.

The government is also facing legal action from the EU over the way trials of Phorm's Webwise system were undertaken with BT without the consent of customers.

Phorm has always maintained that Webwise is entirely legal and does not store any data that would make an individual identifiable.

Instead, it simply matches the themes of a browsing session with relevant advertisers, meaning surfers will see adverts that are more relevant to them while remaining entirely anonymous.

BT is due to roll out the Webwise system later this year and both companies say customers will be given a clear choice as to whether or not they take part.

Critics of Phorm insist that the system is an invasion of privacy and say the company should be brought to book for the secretive way early trials were carried out.

Recently, Amazon and Wikipedia both said that they would not be forming any partnership with Phorm.