Posts by Eponymous Cowherd

Well....

They still allow Mike Huntiswet......

Still to try Ben Doone and Phil McAvity.

Re: Moffat rocks

Absolutely. Top notch. Deserved the BAFTA for Blink, and Jekyll was cracking.

Creating something that atmospheric with nothing more than a bunch of statues is a work of pure genius.

Always found RTD's episodes had an unfinished, rushed feel to them. Like he got bored halfway through writing them.

Re: Its worse than that jim!!!

A colleague was hit from behind by an uninsured driver who gave false details, writing off his car. Sensibly he had written down the reg number.

Police completely uninterested.

No wonder they are losing (have already lost?) the public's trust.

@ Tony Paulazzo

***"I may have got this wrong, but I thought Phorm would only be interested in websites / advertisers who were in the OIX platform, I mean, they wouldn't redirect users to my site as there would be no money in it for them, so why profile it?"***

For non OIX eCommerce sites its a *very* big deal. If you run an eCommerce site that is not associted with Phorm, Phorm will still track its ISP victims to your site and track the products on your site that that Phorm victim views.

Then, when that same Phorm victim visits a site that has OIX adverts he is likely to see adverts for the same kind of product that he was looking at on *your* site.

In other words, if you are not a Phorm/OIX partner, Phorm/OIX can steal your customers merely by them looking at products on *your own* site!!!

Re:Re:Re:Re:Silliness

Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you ;-)

Re:Question (on the silliness subject)

***"Is an ISP not already technically capable of providing authorities with a 'wiretap' to your datastream?"***

Indeed they are.

But, at the moment (IIRC), they only 'tap' particular addresses based on pre-formed suspicions.

Phorm would allow them to simultaneously watch all http traffic on an *entire* ISP for suspicious words and phrases. I'll leave you to work out the implications of that.

Re:Re:Silliness

***"You seem to be forgetting one important fact here. The UK are already the 4th most monitored country int he world. They are doing a fine job in building a surveillance society they have no need of Phorm."***

Oh yes, they love keeping an eye on us. And they won't look a surveillance gift-horse in the mouth. While they have no *need* for Phorm, they may still *want* Phorm.

Indeed, the fact that they have so many ways of watching us already indicates their paranoid mindset, and means, IMHO, they are *more* likely to welcome Phorm as another surveillance tool.

Particularly as it would be at little or no cost to them (apart from turning the odd blind eye to certain issues regarding Phorm's legality). Don't, for one minute, think that Ertugrul hasn't realised the 'law enforcement' uses of the Phorm system and 'marketed' them accordingly.

Re: Silliness

Oh, I'm quite sure HMG can spy on us without Phorm. But look how much easier and cheaper it will be *with* Phorm.

The question still needs to be answered, though. Given that Phorm *is* illegal, and there can be little doubt of that, *why* won't the Gov't, Police, ICO or Ofcom *do* anything about it. Why are they defending Phorm?

The longer the 'authorities' dither about Phorm and the longer they refuse to act on BT's illegal interception, the more such conspiracy theories will gain ground.

Actually this isn't such a bad thing (true or not). People may be apathetic towards an online ad system that protects them from Phishermen, but if they start seeing Big Brother behind it....................

A Dawning Realisation.

that the Government's reluctance to do anything about Phorm and BT's obvious illegal activities is more than mere apathy on their part

@ Steve Roper

Good move,

but as Christophano says, the biggest problem will be persuading ecommerce sites that they don't need 70% of the UK market.

How about an https portal for Phormed ISPs that shows an anti-Phorm banner to Phormed users. eCommerce sites could add a Phorm protection surcharge of a few pence to their prices to cover the cost of the SSL certificate.

In other words, alongside the cost of the product, VAT and delivery will be something like "Privacy surcharge 50p".....

Shouldn't put too many people off and might encourage them to go to an ISP that value their customer's privacy more than the chance to make a quick buck with a former spyware pusher.

Re: ~Forum~

Will sign up.

Re:As I have maintained all along...

@ George Johnson

First off, I don't have a loyalty card. I'm well aware of what the likes of Tesco use them for and refuse to have anything to do with them.

But even supermarket loyalty cards aren't as evil as Phorm.

You have to apply for a Tesco card, you are given Ts&Cs to read if you want, so there *is* informed consent. Phorm doesn't give you that.

Tesco pay you to use their card. Sure its peanuts, but that's more than you get for being spied on by Phorm.

Tesco can only track what you *buy* from *Tesco* stores. Phorm can track you everywhere on the WWW and track everything you do short of when you switch to SSL to make the payment. Browse TVs on the Argos site, then go to the Currys site, then, maybe Amazon. Phorm will profile you across *all* of them. Can you imagine the outcry from Morrisons if Tesco found a way to track what customers were looking at on their shelves, yet that is exactly the service that Phorm will provide it its partner sites.

No, Phorm is several orders of magnitude more evil than supermarket loyaty cards.

And now the good news.

Phorm's share price has plunged to 1275p.

Re:£100 for Judicial Review?

The only way to beat Phorm is with *organised* protests and legal action. All of the current 'pressure groups' are no more than rant shops.

What is needed is someone with PR skill and/or legal training to head up a *real* anti-Phorm organisation that we can support with real money. I would gladly stump up, say, £100 a month to fight this obscenity, and I'm sure many others would, too.

Once you have an organisation with real power (i.e. money) then you can really lay into Phorm. Legal action, full page newspaper ads, mailshots to Phormed ISP customers, intense lobbying of MPs.

Unfortunately I have no PR experience, little legal experience and absolutely no idea how to go about setting up such an organisation (would it be a charity?) Anyone care to step forward???

Re: so What

So why post as AC? What have *you* got to hide?

Is anyone genuinely surprised........

that a government that views tracking and spying on the people it is *supposed* to be serving as its most important function supports Phorm.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if HM Gov views Phorm as a nice, convenient, way of spying on us that they don't have to pay (much) for.

I also wonder if Phorm has been 'in talks' with HM Gov in just this regard.

It would go a *long* way to explain the lack of concern about this from the Home Office and ICO and why BT and Virgin are pushing ahead with this despite the public's outrage.

Wii all the way home.

Yes, the PS3 and '360 have photorealistic graphics, HD, yadda, yadda, yadda. But they offer *nothing* more by way of gameplay than a PS1. All you PS and '360 fanbois do is squat on the ground and play with your knobs.

Re:Shop floor space

***"Why is it that, with Nintendo continuing to sell so many more consoles, so far as I've seen the games shops still dedicate far more shelf space to PS3 and Xbox games? Do Sony and Microsoft have some deal with the big chains to give their titles more exposure?"***

Also wondered the same thing. Same goes for rentals. Blockbuster rent PS2, PS3 and '360 games, but not Wii, despite the Wii having a far bigger user base than the PS3 and therefore, I assume, better rental potential.

Still waiting for the first fanboi "but the Wii isn't a real next gen console" comment......

Not the point

@ Sean

The fact that Ertugrul says "We offer an easy, anonymous method for users to opt out of Phorm's systems if they would rather not receive targeted advertising and content." means, by inference, that you will still be profiled even if you *do* opt-out.

This is unacceptable to me as an ISP customer and, probably, unacceptable to most web site owners who will be visited by Phormed users.

They (Phorm, BT and Virgin) are all being *very* shady when it comes to stating what *actually* happens when you opt-out (or don't opt-in). This reluctance to come clean adds more weight to the suspicion that your browsing will *still* be analysed even if you opt-out.

Even though the data you provide cannot be used to directly target *you* (when you opt-out), it is still *very* valuable for statistical purposes and for selling on to 3rd parties. For example Phorm will be able to compile statistics about the most popular products on eCommerce sites (Argos, Currys, Scan, Dabs, etc) even it *all* their victims opt-out.

And there will be little these sites will be able to do to prevent it!

Re: Phorm's share price.

Did you spot the obvious Phorm plant on their forum. He describes himself as an 'investor' but then gives himself away by talking about Phorm in the first person.

Re: help wanted for webmasters.

The problem is that you won't be aware of Phorm at a website, all Phorm cookies are stripped by the Phorm cuckoo server before you see them.

(I think cuckoo server is a good name as it describes the way it pretends to be your site by way of setting cookies that look like they come from you)

The only method I have seen of detecting Phorm is for *your* site to take a leaf out of Phorm's book and set a fake cookie that looks like the one Phorm sets for your site. If you cannot retrieve that cookie then either that visitor has all cookies disabled or they are Phormed. You can easily check to see if they have all cookies disabled by trying to set a cookie that Phorm won't try to delete.

If you can't set a Phorm-alike cookie but can set another then, in all likelyhood, that visitor (and your website) is being spied upon by Phorm and can (should, IMHO) be blocked.

I see Phorm's share price......

Is continuing to dive. Hit a low of 1450p today from a high of 3505p on Feb 25.

I make it that Phorm has lost £284M in value since Feb 25th.