Phorm counteroffensive?

As we move further into 2009, and with no sign that Phorm's vile deep packet inspection technology will be introduced by British Telecom, one wonders if Phorm may be having cash flow worries.  Phorm appeared to have entered a new PR offensive, and have held a new "Town Hall Meeting" to spread their misinformation.

As usual, the BBC report (Phorm eyes launch after hard year) doesn't really challenge Phorm's claims over anonymity, and gives Kent Ertegrul a hugely useful opportunity to give more media puffery for his company (which don't forget is a rebranded spyware outfit known as 121media).

More interesting developments have arisen in the forums at BadPhorm and nodpi.  At BadPhorm, a poster claiming to be Simon Davies* of Privacy International and 80:20 Thinking (remember that 80:20 came out in support of Phorm, and PI have been remarkably silent on the privacy and legality issues which surround Phorm like a bad odour) has claimed a flood of hostile emails has been organised by some commercial competitot to Phorm.  These claims have been discussed at length both at BadPhorm and the nodpi forum.

Apparently PI and/or 80:20 will make a statement about Phorm next week.  Quite why it's taken them this long to plan a statement is quite bizarre, but many of those campaigning against Phorm and other dpi systems believe PI has been compromised by Simon Davies/80:20's connection with Phorm.  Perhaps next week's statement will clarify the issue.  But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

*now confirmed by Alex Hanff