There's a new Phorm web presence, which seems to mark the beginning of a new PR offensive. The new site, called "inphorm", is a nicely laid out website featuring more spin from Kent Ertegrul, the Phorm CEO. It should be be named "misinphorm". It can be found at http://www.phorm.com/newsletter/01/article01.html.
The main story seriously misrepresents the Phorm system. Remember, as it currently seems to work:
- The system is opt-out, not opt-in (as required by EU regs)
- Opting-out is not permanent, as it's cookie based
- Opting-out merely means targeted adverts are not delivered
- Even when opted-out, a web user's browsing is still routed through Phorm hardware installed within the ISP's infrastructure and profiled
- The Phorm system breaches copyright at several levels
- The Phorm system turns the nature of the internet on its head
Those of us who object to Phorm do so not on the basis of rejecting or opposing online adverts (we can use Adblock or similar), but that the system involves deep packet inspection of all our internet usage. And would anyone really entrust these data to a company like Phorm, who have a past history of releasing spyware (when they were known as 121 media)?.
For more information, look at the dephormation website. There's a discussion thread at the nodpi.org forum.