Amazon's Phorm opt-out welcomed

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has welcomed a decision from online retailer Amazon to reject the use of Phorm's technology on its website.

This comes after the ORG wrote an open letter to major web companies urging them to boycott Phorm.

"By choosing to block the contentious online advertising system from scanning its web pages, [Amazon has] taken the positive choice to protect their users’ privacy and their own brands," said the ORG's Jim Killock.

"We expect more sites to block Webwise in the near future and also ISPs to drop plans to snoop on web users," Killock continued.

Phorm, otherwise known as Webwise, has attracted controversy as it provides targeted advertising to individual surfers.

Privacy campaigners such as the ORG and the Federation for International Policy Research (FIPR) insist Phorm is illegal as it intercepts private communications data.

But Phorm has consistently denied that it stores any information that would make an individual indentifiable.

"There is a process in place to allow publishers to contact Phorm and opt out of the system, but we do not comment on individual cases," a Phorm spokeswoman said.

Earlier this week, the EU announced plans to take the UK to court over secret Phorm trials that took place in 2006.