It's astonishing that every country has come down hard on these forms of spyware yet the UK government have promoted it and similarly the British police have endorsed it as criminally exempt.

It's even more sickening to discover Bt/Phorm are considering involving national charities to assist them in peddling their wares to the public in exchange for generous donations.

I have read the sample Bt/Phorm Webwise interception page and it clearly conflicts with the ICO's requirements, it is not transparent, it is not sensitive to users wishes and it is most ambiguous in stating the correct terms in smallest print.. To me it is identical to every other known spyware scam on the internet that has plagued us for so many years and caused so much harm to everyone.

It must be stopped.

Will you please just Phuck of now, already.

Please, Phuck OFF.

Just Phuck off.

It's like some cheeky tw*t at school or something.

Just Phuck off. Right off.

For Phuck's sake, leave us alone and Phuck off.

can someone recommend a good ISP, preferably that offers TV with a HDMI output?

is it worth making the move over to, dare I say it, Sky?

BT can go phuck themselves, I know at least 20 people who will now be leaving BT because of the adoption of this invasive technology.

If you see this page asking you to join the service, PHONE ACCOUNTS AND TERMINATE YOUR CONTRACT. There is no other way to get these corporate whores to listen than by taking away your business EN MASSE.

I can promise you now, should I EVER find Virgin joining up with this service, i'll drop them like a hot potato covered in anthrax.

So if someone collects the browsing information from the Chief Exec of BT and publishes it that's OK? No criminal procedings will ensue? Knock out, lets go for it!!

Anyone know what would happen if I wrote a script to randomly open a close websites (100's per hour whilst I'm at work on my home computer) to confuse or overload Phorm?

What would happen if 1000's did this at the same time?

My theory is if you feed false info, nobody's going to take phorm seriously after a few months.

"voluntarily participate" & "invited". Interesting that they NOW use these phrases/words.

After all, it was all LEGAL wasn't it? Oh sry i ment to say ILLEGAL but acceptable in the grand scheme of things for "backdoor" brown. ID Cards anyone?

Really interesting that you can opt out with a cookie... So does this mean BT/Phorm still intercept the traffic to see if the cookie is Opt IN or or Opt OUT ??? Dont bother answering, we already know the answer.

After all this is all LEGAL init ?!

as per the title - Pah

I'm with you on this one. If Virgin start Phorm trials, I will also be leaving them and have made my concerns clear to their CEO although I didn't get a reply...surprise...surprise.....

Surely they should be seeking my permission as the account holder. What if my 5 year old daughter clicks Yes when it pops up...

"BT Webwise uses a cookie stored on trial customers' computers to remember their preference. If the cookie is deleted at any point, the invitation page will be displayed again."

So, if you have your browser set to reject cookies from non-trusted sites (or to reject them unconditionally), this effectively performs a denial of service for Web use. Nice.

Likewise, if you use non-browser retrieval (for example wget, to retrieve pages automatically for repurposing or caching), that makes the broadband functionally useless. Outstanding, BT, truly outstanding.

And, for your next trick, how about injecting full-page adverts into the user's browsing, with a tiny "Go to the URL you actually asked for>>>" link at the bottom?

If anyone uses BT Broadband you may get an email asking you to join BT Web Wise.

Please make sure you DON’T do this. The system is being fronted as a security tool, but in actuality monitors ALL of your internet usage and uses it to target you with advertising. This includes but is not limited to all websites you view, any details you enter into websites (including passwords, bank details etc) messages sent via instant messaging clients such as MSN and your personal emails.

The system is currently under investigation by the European courts and the Information Commissioners Office for breaches of the data protection act and wiretapping laws.

Please forward this email on to anyone you know who uses BT Broadband and feel free to sign the downing street petition against Phorm (the company behind Web Wise) here:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ispphorm/

Thanks.

...BT and Phorm will STILL be non-consensually intercepting your traffic, even if you opt out; what they do with that intercepted traffic is hardly the point - they shouldn't be intercepting it to start with. And they are STILL (despite what the lying little shits said) using cookies to determine whether you've opted out or not. So they're STILL a bunch of lying scumbags, except that in the face of the supine acquiescence of those incompetent, ineffectual wastes of oxygen at the City of London Police, they have a LICENSE to be lying scumbags. One hopes that the judicial review of the CLP's decision to not prosecute will reach an appropriate conclusion, but one doubts it. Once again, it's clear that RIPA is a weapon to be used against the individual, not a means of protecting them.

Especially if they are BT's and Phorm's own sites!! Why break other peoples??

"BT chief press officer Adam Liversage confirmed that opted-out traffic will pass through the system during the trial, but said it "will not be mirrored or profiled".

So if you opt out, your data still goes through the system, but they promise not to do anything with it. Well that's ok. After all, they're both reputable, trustworthy companies who would never lie to us.

Oh, wait....

Not In Any Way, Shape or Phorm!!!

Anyone know which charities are in bed with Phorm?

I'd expect they'd be quite sensitive to being named and shamed.

Anyone know where I can find a list of "decent" ISPs that don't plan to Pharm my browsing habits?

I've got a nice counter on my sites so I can invoice BT for royalties if any of these infected fellows come into contact with them.

Please will one of the BOFH who read El Reg devise some way to screw BT. So help me, I'm on Virgin Broadband and would love to swamp Phorm with searches for donkey sex or whatever would best foul up this despicable trial.

How fast the Internet could be if there wasn't all this Deep Packet Inspection going on.

Its bad enough when you pay for a service and don't get the speed advertised

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ispphorm/

Interesting post at the bottom of this page (#179). No replies as yet, but genuinely interesting.

Anyone any ideas?

I think dephormation.org had some kind of script you could use to detect phorm infected visitors.

@ amanfromMars. As much as I never usually understand you, let alone agree with you I sadly have to admit you may be right:

"Move On, Bobby, it is Far too Late for that to be Either a Viable or an Available Option."

I fear that whatever happens, BT (and the others) have gone too far down the Phorm road to back out now.

I clicked through to look at webwise.net, which redirects to webwise.com. And was interested to note that there is no Virginmedia logo on that page. There is only logos from BT and TalkTalk.

Does this imply that Virgin are already getting cold feet and stepping back from this?

(As a Virginmedia user I do hope so :))

What happens if you have multiple laptops across your house and some of them are used by children?

Will the children be asked if they wish to join up as they don't have a cookie on their machine? Surely this is illegal?

There should be a flag on the account with user preferences, not cookie based on the client browser, BT stick it where the Sun don't shine (same goes for Carphone Whorehouse and Tiscali when they start using it).

The "Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008" has the clause on unfair commercial practices - quote:

"information...likely to deceive the average consumer in relation to any of the matters in that paragraph, even if the information is factually correct"

...which by the look of that sample invite page, this falls right into.

You can get hold of Alex on his website pretty easily - https://nodpi.org

I've already switched to a Zen business line - much better reliability and great support.

To create the phuck off phorm program

Basically to bombard the phishing sniffer gear with multiple web page requests completely at random in order to make the data gathered completely worthless

Thumbs down... because phorm deserve the chop

that they get it in the ass by the EU.... dont think it will though!

I think its time to start on the old virtual pc and fill it full of click ads and once its completely infected, see how much data gets passed back to BT, should be nice to see random websites appear and their respective 3000 ad's! I wonder how much capacity they have if everyone does this?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/paris_hilton_32.png Paris... cause if theyre going to phuck with you you might as well moan and take the money!

'..BT chief press officer Adam Liversage confirmed that opted-out traffic will pass through the system during the trial, but said it "will not be mirrored or profiled"...'

May I refer BT, Phorm (and also the ICO as they seem to have forgotten this, useless fuckers) to the Data Protection Act 1998. Specfically:

11. (1) An individual is entitled at any time by notice in writing to a data controller to require the data controller at the end of such period as is reasonable in the circumstances to cease, or not to begin, processing for the purposes of direct marketing personal data in respect of which he is the data subject.

Note the use of this part 'cease, or not to begin, PROCESSING'

The Data Protection Act 1998 defines 'Processing' to be:

'“processing”, in relation to information or data, means obtaining, recording or holding the information or data or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the information or data'

Bearing in mind unencrypted http traffic can and often contains a person's name, address and telephone number, which also by definition is 'identifying personal information' if someone wants to opt out of Phorm/Webwise then it seems pretty clear that they're breaking the law if it still passes through their system but they promise not to peek at it.

Note to BT & Phorm in moron speak as you don't seem to understand. Just because you're not 'doing' anything with the data that passes through your system (so you say) the mere fact that it passes through and might contain identifying information means you have to adhere to the DPA and customers wishes.

This is the final straw, I will be leaving BT today and heading over to an Entanet reseller, who provide much better service and don't monitor my communications.

I've been a customer of BT Business Broadband for just over 2 years now, initially it was good however during my contract they stealthily changed their Terms and Conditions so that my unlimited connection was no longer so unlimited. I was rate limited down to 512kb/sec, after over half an hour on the phone with them they finally checked if I had been rate limited. It turns out this operation is outsourced to a firm in Germany and is based on percentages - no hard figures. At the time, the quota to be limited down to 2mbit as a puny 20GB and 512kbit/sec at just 60GB. I gave them an earful for this and it seems they made an exception. However, I presume many others are also unknowingly in this situation. With the prevalence of digital media these days, it's very easy to consume *reasonable* amounts of data. 20GB is not what I would consider a reasonable amount of data.

Now they persist on continuing this absurd scheme. Enough is enough BT - I will not be snooped on in an insecure fashion (or any fashion for that matter) to increase your executive bonuses. Goodbye BT, I won't miss you, rest assured.

I'll try that again *WITH* the link!

Interesting post at the bottom of this page (#179).

http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showthread.php?s=9bb1a01d1473b8b0ed61ce8415047a95&t=740&page=18

No replies as yet, but genuinely interesting.

Anyone any ideas?

Alan, I think your dephormation firefox plugin is just reacting to the fact that this El'Reg story about Phorm includes information about blocking webwise.net. IMHO that firefox plugin will be confused by the "webwise.net" words within the body of the story text.