I believe the expression is

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig"

.. if true.

1) Opt-in, not opt-out. As long as this is not done with cookies, and means that if you opt-out your traffic is no longer sniffed

2) You actually get a (ok, small) slice of the money being made.

Now we have the basis of a deal. Your browsing habits aren't being stolen without consent, you are selling them. Now we just have to agree a price.

They can...

...if thet fuck off and die. Parasites!

Now all they have to do is guarantee that the traffic of people who don't opt in is connected directly to the internet and not anywhere near the profiler and everyone will be happy........

Even with lipstick a pig can be turned into bacon & Lincolnshire sausages :-)

But a chrome plated turd.......................

Phuck off Phorm

Stingy bastards...

Would you prefer

a) to have your creative work scammed without your consent?

b) to be subject to industrial espionage, and lose business?

c) see your web site plastered with unwanted and unexpected ads for competitors?

or

d) Phorm to go out of business and leave the country?

I'd vote d, but of course they won't ask content creators, because they know the answer they'd get.

Fingers crossed its not too long now before the cash runs out, and this bunch of scamming idiots leaves the country, with the UK technical community jeering them as they board the last commercial pedalo to sea of eternal oblivion.

Unless Phorm also deal with all the website owners who have copyright on their sites Porm will still break laws.

“The inevitable conclusion is that an ISP who operates the Phorm system will commit offences under RIPA s1 on a large scale. Phorm is inciting the commission of those offences, which is itself an offence at common law (and will be an offence under section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 when it is brought into force to replace the common law offence).”

Taken from http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/09/19/what-berr-want-from-phorm-and-what-we-think-theyre-missing/

* An upgrade to a faster broadband package at no extra cost

Ummm ok maybe this one isnt half bad for some people that may not be able to afford it otherwise. Though on the same note heh unlimited broadband 'nuff said.

* £1 off monthly broadband bills

WOW impressive amount off. Whats the bill for BB over there? 45-60?

* £1 cashback per month

See above though I do wonder how much they would be making off this in the end.

* A cut of advertising revenues

1% cut for all of the 60 people who might allow this. $85 million at 1% doesnt sound that bad and they would still be making money

* A free premium technical support line

Tech support SHOULD be free if your paying for service. Idiots.

* Free music download vouchers

Its call torrents people already use them and get more free music then they would give away.

* Free anti-virus software

Umm doesnt this already come with BB service over there? I know it comes free with BB over in some cases, wouldnt use it but thats just me.

* Parental content controls

See above but doesnt most AV software now-a-days come with as well?

I know im not from the UK but seriously do they think you are anymore retarded then people over here in the states? I mean shit I thought we had the monopoly on idiots over here.

Sorry they think you are all fools :(

But they said that Webwise was wonderful, and BT said their (unpublished) market research had proved we wanted it. Why do they need incentives if the product is wonderful and we all want it? Were they telling porkies at that time? Surely not,, they are both reputable transparent, open and honest companies.

As we the public are effectively providing most of the content that enables the Phorm business model to be able to operate - we naturally become a major part of its operational supply chain, as without our input the product is essentially a lame duck.

Perhaps then, but only after all issues regarding privacy have resolved; as suppliers of that content and as an incentive for us to opt-in, that WE can be paid to a decent level as would any normal corporate supplier expect to be, rather than offering up these oh so desperate carrots to garner public interest, that in reality - fools or tempts no one.

Whether customers opt in or remain opt out, there will not be any money left in the kitty when the claims come in from angry webmasters who have had their copyright infringed by a disgraceful privacy attack by this company whose roots are of dubious origin. (121Media - associated with spyware?).

They are also forgetting that the EC will hopefully soon scupper this outrage!

In order for this to be "legal" every Website visited would need to give permission & I do not see the EU Websites or the US Websites agreeing to that!.

Especially as the US have just stopped ISPs on their side of the water doing it & the EU have just strengthened their Telecoms packages!

On an added note "data interception" is until changed by a Court illegal, but more importantly with the Phorm & Nebuad System, altering or changing data (which is Exactly what Phorm /Nebuad systems were doing) is akin to Intercepting Parcels & "Changing the contents" to suit the particular supplier?

In additition it may not even be enough for both the User & the Website to give permission especially on bullitin boards etc, because the material involved is effectively the Copyright of a multitude of different Users, some may be signed up for Phorm but most will not be!

That's the mess you get into when you "wiretap" & also interfere with a Two Way Conversation or Communication!

(Whew that was a mouthful) :)

"Analysts estimated BT's cut of targeted advertising revenues could hit £85m annually,"

That was projected over 3 years when it was opt-out so 90%, now its opt-in I would say 10% so maybe 12m over 3 years..

Divided by the amount of BT subscribers it doesn't amount to a smal pile of beans.

BT has always given free upgrades to faster speeds, What will be interesting here is if BT start to make the customers who refuse to be phormed have an inferior connection. There are already many on reduces speeds due to the fear of the excessive fee's BT charge if no fault is found. The fact the customers speeds have dropped and their equipment is not at fault. It is taking longer and longer to get BT to fix faults some have been charged more than once of over £100 then some 4 months later BT fix the fault as overhead wireing with breaks causing intermitten faults..

Regulation of the faults is letting customers down and BT profit, now BT wish to use Phorm to profit from customers who are already paying. This is too little to late for me I will be also blocking BT ip numbers from my websites

what a joke "£1 a month off my monthly bill" is. for our sins we pay Virgin Media ~£1500 year and if they force this down our throats they can wave goodbye to that. they should have put that on the survey.

my privacy/data security is worth just a touch more.

They're just going to illegally tap the line anyway and the rozzers are going to sit back and ignore it. Might as well offer to probe for 'roids.

"An upgrade to a faster broadband package at no extra cost" - unless Phorm pay for fibre to the home, my line is wrung out! ADSL2+ is not going to offer much on old copper!

"£1 off monthly broadband bills/£1 cashback per month" - ooh, £24 will make such a difference! How about I turn off my PCs and save the money on my elastic-trickery bill!

"A cut of advertising revenues" - I can get that on my own website if I want!

"A free premium technical support line" - For what? My ISP sold my port 80 traffic and all I got was this lousy technical support line!

"Free music download vouchers" - compressed pap is against my rock religion. You do know that Jimmy Page is a God?!

"Free anti-virus software" - what, you mean like ClamAV or AVG free version. Try harder!

"Parental content controls" - Does that mean I can control all those annoying parents around where I live? Turning them off would make the world a safer place!

Tux, because Linux admins will find a way to bypass Phorm!

I don't really want an encrypted system for normal use all I want is an open & free to use Internet without my ISP "snooping" on my data!

(Although I have thought of quite a few ways around this System already!)

BT if you're snooping "again", I know you're getting miffed at what I'm reporting but Please desist from trying to ARP Poisoning my router (all I do is power recycle it & start again) or I may tell this community that you didn't switch this Profiler Off after these tests but have been trying to fine tune the subroutines on many occasions!

Just because it isn't Serving Ads doesn't mean my data is not flowing through it does it!

What would that be used for then? I have had broadband for more years than I can remember and have never needed to phone anyone. What is there to be done? - plug in router, login to router, set IP address/es, set up network card.

If there is no signal, check wiring and / or reboot router.

The whole purpose of ADSL is that it is always on, so once it is working what can go wrong?

Hey, Phorm guys, if you are going to offer free anti-virus software to try to entice people to let you monitor their communications, then why not bundle your behavioural targeting wares within the anti-virus software.

You would save a fortune by not needing to pay the ISP to install your DPI hardware, which you wouldn't need either because the processing would be done by the end-user's PC.

It would also avoid the need to ping-pong the end-users traffic around to forge tracking cookies.

Oh, hang on... isn't that like the failed adware and spyware models, that is hugely unpopular - still at least you could prevent your anti-virus software from removing itself :)

How do we find this poll then? I can't find it on Toluna's site, even searching on Webwise, which gives no results.....

Paris, because you always get a result with her......

As people above me have pointed out. These are all no real benefits what so ever. Free Anti-Virus software is already available. And £1 off? Are they serious?

As for parental controls i'm pretty sure that BT offer it anyway. At least they did when I was with them a few months ago.

To quote so many people: "Phuck off Phorm!"

I'm sure OFCOM will have something to say about this, oh, wait, they are now working to promote Phorm.

Hmm, is this incentives poll funded by OFCOM or do my perceptions need changing?

This is just way too sick to believe, this scum should be removed from society, permanently...

(First of all) Solomon it is called the Great BRITISH Pound, not the English one, and if you really can't find it on your keyboard it's as simple as copying and pasting it from the article. There are about 40 £ signs on this very page.

Phorm should have offered £2 off instead of 2 pounds separately. £1 just looks so pathetic that it actually does the opposite. At least you don't burst out laughing and look for the missing numbers quite as hard when they say £2 off.

I can't find the Phorm/Webwise Poll either.

Can someone locate it? Toluna is located here:

http://uk.toluna.com/