BT advert trials were 'illegal'

BT advert trials were 'illegal'

news.bbc.co.uk

Trials of an online ad system carried out by BT involving more than 30,000 of its customers were potentially illegal, says a leading digital rights lawyer.

BT has said it trialled a prototype of Phorm, which matches adverts to users' web habits, in 2006 and 2007.

The company did not inform customers that they were part of the trial.

Nicholas Bohm, of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, said tests without the knowledge of users were "an illegal intercept of users' data".

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
"Phorm" Adware to be used by ISP's
Top 3 British broadband Providers selling your information!

So, 36,000 BT customers have had all their surfing patterns looked at and tracked by the company.

When I lived at home with my mum and dad, we were on BT Internet and I am appalled that they were potentially following my every move.

They claim to justify it by saying it will improve our web experience by showing 'relevant' adverts, but Just because I go on a certain type of website doesn't mean I want adverts for related products. I mean, I read about sailing a lot, but I don't want to be bombarded by adverts for fenders...

I also happen to think that it is very likely that they could sell this information to the highest bidder at any time.

Our privacy is being eroded by the minute and I am sick of it.

If people WANT adverts, whey do so many of us use AdBlock and pop-up blockers?

If people want to be tracked, why do some of us use tor networks?

I'm really disappointed in BT for this and am glad they do not now provide my Internet.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I was once told by a UK poster here that EU citizens are less 'anal' about the disposition of their 'personal' information because they enjoy more trust in the system.

I would urge you to recognize that this 'issue' and others like it are very ominous indicators of a corporate trend to establish a legal position that once the data is in their 'pipes' it belongs to them. As usual, this is not only about privacy, it's about ownership.

The last battlefield will be fought not about the subject of the information, but the 'medium' in which the information is distributed. If I own the pipe, where the pipe goes is my business, that will be their position.

Good luck with this.

Ok theres a very easy fix for this . Right click your internet connection . tcp/ip properties. Change your "preferred dns" to
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.1

No more BT redirects.

Originally posted by oLDWoRLDDiSoRDeR
Ok theres a very easy fix for this . Right click your internet connection . tcp/ip properties. Change your "preferred dns" to
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.1

No more BT redirects.

No fair coming up with simple solutions! You leave me with nothing to rant about!

Great tip! - Starred it!

I would try it but I'm far too scared. I have no idea about 'TCP or MDF' ports so I'll just leave them as it is.

I am genuinely surprised that no-one has any further comments on this though.

Thanks for your responses and thoughts, anyway, guys.

reply to post by more_serotonin_pls


Its just changing your DNS. You can look around for a DNS that suits you .

Check out www.dslreports.com to find alternative DNS. And pretty much anything you could ever want to know about broadband.

reply to post by oLDWoRLDDiSoRDeR


Can you give me more of a clue about where that DNS you suggested would take me, and why you recommend it? I'm a bit of a programming dunce to be honest and hope you dont mind the questions as I can't afford to have my PC crippled and not know what I've done

reply to post by citizen smith


Well what i use it for is to get around comcasts "walled garden" Which directs you to there "sign up" page for new service. Seeing as i dont pay for comcast internet but still want to use it .(f.r.e.e 40.m.e.g.) I just use a different DNS.
Thats just the common alternate DNS server recommended to me and i have seen recommended on the web.

It would take me a day or two to explain it all check out this linky

en.wikipedia.org...

Uses

The most basic task of DNS is to translate hostnames to IP addresses. In very simple terms, it can be compared to a phone book. DNS also has other important uses.

Above all, DNS makes it possible to assign Internet names to organizations (or concerns they represent), independently of the physical routing hierarchy represented by the numerical IP address. Because of this, hyperlinks and Internet contact information can remain the same, whatever the current IP routing arrangements may be, and can take a human-readable form (such as "example.com"), which is easier to remember than the IP address 208.77.188.166. People take advantage of this when they recite meaningful URLs and e-mail addresses without caring how the machine will actually locate them.

The Domain Name System distributes the responsibility for assigning domain names and mapping them to IP networks by allowing an authoritative server for each domain to keep track of its own changes, avoiding the need for a central registrar to be continually consulted and updated.

BTW the DNS i posted is 1000000% safe . If the need arises i will back that claim up .

[edit on 3-4-2008 by oLDWoRLDDiSoRDeR]

Just a couple things to think of...

Your surfing habits will be tracked. The best you can hope for are laws that prohibit access to your individual data and companies/organizations that follow them. If a company is doing it through DNS redirects, they are slowing you down.

There are estimated to be over 60,000 rogue DNS servers that will point you to phishing IP addresses for known web sites. Unfortunately, unless you really know what you're doing and the DNS servers you're using, you probably shouldn't change your DNS.