The Register has a report on the House of Lords privacy meeting (Phorm CEO clashes with Berners-Lee at Parliament), and it sounds as though sparks were flying.
It would seem that comparisons have been made between the pathetic response of the UK government to the far more robust attitute of the US government:
The failure of UK authorities to investigate BT's and Phorm's secret trials in 2006 and 2007 was discussed as evidence the government did not appreciate the significance of Phorm-like technologies. Clayton said that although he didn't expect BT executive to face criminal charges for coopting tens of thousands of customers' data in Phorm's systems, "we have got to make examples of them [to stop a repeat]".
There was agreement on the panel that the failure to investigate was not the result of poor privacy laws, but in the weakness of bodies meant to enforce them. The Information Commissioner's Office shoulder-shrugging response to the secret trials and a lack of technogical expertise among police were both highlighted.
Several delegates El Reg spoke to noted the contrast between the UK parliament's belated and ad hoc response to the issues and the series of formal hearing quickly convened last summer by legislators in Washington.
I guess it remains to to be seen whether the event will have wised up our politicians as to the danger here. But at least the phoul stench of Phorm was aired.
Expect further reports on nodpi.org and via the Open Rights Group.