I blogged the other day that there might be an interesting conflict of interest in Lord Carter's office (Why Lord Carter is pro-Phorm?).  Lord Carter of course wrote the Digital Britain report, and is a bit of a mover and shaker in Government circles when it comes to digital issues such as broadband rollout (remember Phorm claim their technology will help fund broadband expansion).  The news revolved around the fact that among other activities, Phorm's Kip Meeks works as an advisor to Lord Carter.

Chris Williams of The Register has been digging (The Register - Phorm director advises UK.gov broadband minister):

The news that police have raided a meeting of climate campaigners on suspicion of plotting a protest at a power station near Nottingham (BBC News - Police hold 114 in power protest) doesn't seem to have been questioned - isn't this a bit odd? After the arrested hadn't actually protested, nor had they even set of to start their protest.

Now it transpires (BBC News -  Power station protesters released) that all 114 protesters (or should I say, would-be protesters) have been on bail, but without charge.  At least an MP has now questioned whether this was a proportionate response: Nottingham South MP Alan Simpson has reportedly raised concerns over the nature of the policing operation, and whether it was really proportionate:"

The BBC is reporting that the European Commission have launched an action against Britain over the Phorm phiasco (EC starts legal action on Phorm):

All action on the Phorm phront today.  Hot on the heels of the EC press release revealing they are taking action against the UK over Phorm comes the news that 80/20 Thinking will no longer undertake advisory work for companies (BBC News - Privacy firm drops advisory work).  This follows accusations that one of the firms founders, Simon Davies, also works for the privacy lobby group Privacy International.  The conflict of interest revolves around Davies association with Phorm - many commentators have remarked how lukewarm PI's response to the many issues of privacy that have been raised by Phorm's ISP level deep packet inspection system.

The Open Rights Group have set up a spiffy site, Statebook,  to illustrate the dangers of the burgeoning Database State in the UK. 

It's an effectve illustration of how the UK's intrusive data collection habits threaten our liberties and freedom, and how the future looks to be mapped out.  The recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Trust revealed that not only is our government remarkably keen to get their dibs on considerable quantities of data on us and our movements, but that it's equally inept in obeying data protection regulations.

Lord Carter is the author of a report for the UK Government, Digital Britain.  The UK Government, its Departments and other agencies have been remarkably ineffective over the fracas about Phorm's deep packet inspection technology, its covert testing by BT in 2006 and 2007, and its more open testing by BT on 2008.

Well, what's this in a Guardian report (Government's broadband-for-all pledge in jeopardy)?

A year or so on after Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, coauthor of Dungeons & Dragons has died (Ars Technica: Between battles, the story: Dave Arneson has passed on).  Dungeons and Dragons (and subsequently several other roleplaying games) played a hugeand very important part in my life from my teens into my late 20s. 

Arneson had some sort of falling out with Gary Gygax and left TSR (the publishers of D&D) in 1975, but apparently he was at least partially back in the fold for the third edition of the game.  The Ars Technica review says it better than I can.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has a website of essays related to the internet and privacy, and many feature discussions of Phorm's vile and intrusive technology, tested in the UK as "Webwise".

You can view the essays here.  There are contributions from individuals on both sides of the fence (but mostly it seems anti-dpi).

Ben Goldacre has published the "missing chapter" from his excellent book Bad Science on his BadScience blog (Matthias Rath - steal this chapter).  He was unable to include it in the book because Rath mounted a legal action against Goldacre and The Guardian.  Thankfully Rath lost, and the truth can be told.  And it's appalling.

Goldacre's published this chapter under a Creative Commons licence.

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).