back to article Phorm CEO clashes with Berners-Lee at Parliament

An exasperated Kent Ertugrul took on Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a tense encounter at a discussion on internet privacy at the Houses of Parliament today. The Phorm CEO was in the audience at a packed event sponsored by the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Miller and organised by the privacy activist website NoDPI.org. Fellow peers, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Heart

    OMG

    I practically wet my pants reading this. I would soooooooo much like to have been there to see Kent's face :D

    'scuse me, I'm off to nodpi for some gossip !

    'Gratz to you Chris and El Reg for keeping up the British end.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Phorm's got form

    In a more truthful universe: "We were only following orders," said Ertugrul. "Our orders!"

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    So phorm is?

    You've got your wankers on one hand and your lying wankers on the other....but both hands belong to Phorn.

  4. Eponymous Cowherd

    If Sir Tim says Phorm is snooping....

    Then it *IS* snooping.

    End of story. Full Stop!

  5. Tony
    Unhappy

    All your data are belong to us

    Ertugrul presumably thinks that the data doesn't belong to the individual but to the company that collects it; and that they can then do as they please with that data. No doubt, he will use the argument that this is to benefit everyone as it allows the marketing to be better targeted.

    Horse feathers and similar phrases - this is about one thing, and one thing only. He wants to MAKE MONEY out of us. He doesn't give a monkey's about the quality of anyone elses marketing apart from his own.

    In many ways this process is like someone entering your house, wandering around looking at your possesions and then leaving - they would argue that they have done nothing wrong as they have taken nothing or damaged nothing. The Phorm argument would be similar; as they anonymise the data, they have taken nothing and caused you no damage. However, I wonder if Mr Ertugrul's wife would be as sanguine if she thought someone had gone through her house and looked through her underwear?

    I cannot even begin to express my utter contempt for Phorm and their business model. It is based upon a truly unacceptable practice - I would refuse to deal with any company that used their services in any way, shape or Phorm.

  6. Pierre
    Flame

    It's still alive

    Childs, bring your flamethrower!

  7. Vision Aforethought
    Flame

    Phorm are the devile incarnate

    These companies (FaceBook is no different) are run by people who never had ethics and have no comprehension of their station. Tim Berners-Lee on the other hand has wisdom, common sense and a compassionate forward thinking grounding, so speaks the truth. The sooner people rebel against any entity that collects our data and infringes on our privacy and dignity, the better. The long term soliution is the law, but the problem is, the government is in bed with the corporations because they like to snoop too.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tim for PM

    Go on run Tim, a platform of just inventing the Web will be enough to generate a ton of votes.

    Perhaps he could get behind a particular party if he doesn't want to run, Damn, there is no one in British Politics up for the job at the mo. We need new leadership.

  9. Caff

    non identifiable data?

    I would have thought after the aol data release they would have copped on a bit that anonymous is not always enough

  10. nicholas22
    Unhappy

    GET OUT OF BT/VIRGIN/etc.

    I'm getting out through the contract clause of reduce level of service if they enforce Phorm without my permission as a customer.

    Go Sir Tim, Go! United, against snoopers :))))

  11. 3x2

    Patently misrepresented

    "There have been a number of things said that patently misrepresent what we do,"

    Like - "you are a lying, sack of shit, scumware vendor who will wire-tap my private communications when hell freezes over"

  12. Steve

    Makes you laugh

    Whats to stop them monitoring all traffic anyways?? unofficaly of course.

    And dont people pipe up and say they dont do it its the law....

    Case of yeh right.

    Speaking of Monitoring wonder ig GCHQ have taken there base off google maps yet lol

  13. General A. Annoying

    Dear Kent

    Just this

    Please F O A D, A S A P.

    and take your company with you.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who Do You Believe?

    A world respected individual and visionary, knighted for his revolutionary idea

    or

    A spyware peddler who hates the very thought of people disagreeing with him?

    Where's that evidence that Phorm is legal again? Damn sure I haven't seen it... has anyone?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Listen to Sir TIm

    When Sir Tim says this is wrong, stop it. What more do politicians need to hear?

    Who do you Trust? WWW Tim or Spyware Kent?

  16. Nick

    A living model of the system....

    So this bloke from Phorm decided to keep butting in even though he wasn't asked to participate in the transaction between the provider (on the stage) and the intended recipients ?

    T B-L is excellent at explaining things in a clear and passionate (but not insane) manner to an intelligent audience who wants to understand and discuss. This is where the blustering moneygrabbers get put in their place without being able to shout down the clear argument. More of this please, perhaps in the broadcast media too.

  17. John Smith Gold badge
    Alert

    The reason Kent Ertugrul was not on the panel

    Was that the panel was entitled "internet *privacy*

    He does not feel you should have any.

    Upton Sinclair said "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it"

    Phorn appeals to large ISP management. Its a simple idea which shows them how to turn something with limited direct value to them into a (supposedly) big profit.

    Senior management at large ISP's should be able to figure out ways to stay profitable given their large market share, but apparently (despite the rather large pay cheques) they cannot. Perhaps because people can and do switch suppliers in way they would not consider doing with (say) Microsoft.

    I am not saying that MS is an effective monopoly supplier. Just they more effectively discourage switching.

    2 Things.

    Phorn. Stock exchange (http://www.londonstockexchange.com/) shows phorn (PHRX and PHRM) at c£6 and £3.50. PHRM steps up 50p when they announced the BT trial were complete. The volumes are *tiny* Most of the last 5 trades in each were in the 100s (of shares) not 1000s. The spread of prices between asking and offered is about 5.7%. Those with £1k to spare and a dealing account would have a real chance to affect the price directly. If enough people sold short it this would put the share price on the down slope. Don't reason with a rabid dog. Put it down.

    For the ISPs. Its about revenue. If your with BT/CarPhoneWarehouse/Virgin. Leave and explain why. They get Phorn = falling subscribers. They're big. But what benefits does that actually show to *you*, Mr or Ms Consumer? Prices that keener? (Real) bandwidth that high? Spam filter *that* much better?

    Virgin keeps knocking on my door. They get told "Ditch Phorn. I'll think about it."

    ISPs need things people will want to do with their service, not be forced to do because they cannot avoid it. Its called adding value and it means value to me, not just to them.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Phorm defended by Peter Bazelgette?

    Doesn't that constitute a critical mass of shit?

  19. Dom

    Good to see......

    that El Reg are still keeping us informed about Phorm. It's funny how the mainstream news agencies are too scared to show the truth about this issue. I guess that they feel that they might lose their precious advertising revenues!

    Go T B-L!

  20. Martin Silver badge
    Alert

    Why not on the phone?

    Given speech recognition technology BT could add this to their landlines.

    They could listen in on your calls and then ring you back with appropriate ads.

    Of course as soon they hear you telling your child 'I love you' while calling from a hotel on a business trip and then they ring the child up and play NSFW ads for 'romantic' products they might be in trouble,

  21. Danny Thompson
    Black Helicopters

    Hello? Goodbye!

    Ring ring. Ring ring. Press 1 for ... Press 2 for .. etc ..

    "Hello can I help you"

    "Yes, you can. You can cancel my subscription to Virgin Media"

    "Ok, may I ask why you want to leave us sir?"

    "Yes, it is because you have recently announced that you are going to implement Phorm and I have no wish to permit you to snoop into my use of the Internet"

    "Ah, okay sir, your contract will end in 30 days"

    "Thank you"

    Click .....

    Well, how could they possibly argue.

    Virgin can take their Phorm black helicopters and shove them where the sun really doesn't shine.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    God vs Satan

    Wish I'd had a ringside seat for this. Kent obviously resents being in a situation where he can't control the message, or at least have the right to talk over others, and trying to do so over someone with so much moral force was simply foolish.

    With the right coverage in the wider media, this event just might be the springboard to wake the public up to the threat. Most people have heard of Berners-Lee and respect what he has to say. Phorm can hardly say the same of their own cheerleaders, who include Norman Lamont, the man who continually defended General Pinochet on TV and gave us Black Wednesday.

    "In a minute, Kent". Or maybe never, Kent.

  23. SilverWave

    Ertugrul spitts out the dummy eh?

    Hmm business plan fail eh?

    A good riddance of bad rubbish!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Peter Bazalgette

    should get back to the sewer.

  25. Miami Mike
    Pirate

    A bit of compassion is requested here . . .

    I say we show these F*cktards from Phorm a bit of compassion - ask them what color blindfold they want and if they prefer filter-tip or plain cigarettes just before we put their lying, thieving, spying, money grubbing asses up against the wall and shoot them.

    Slowly, so it hurts a LOT, too.

    If someone is peeping into your house, you can have them arrested and they'll be prosecuted. If someone is listening into your phone calls (and they are not the gub'mint), the same thing applies. How and why are web searches any different?

    Maybe we should drop 'em off in Afghanistan and let them explain their program to the Taliban - we could be compassionate in allowing them the use of parachutes.

    Spies get shot - international law - these guys and their company are spies, ergo, lock and load!

  26. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Pirate

    What a rude Kent!

    They should have tasered him!

    I'm sure he wouldn't mind having his civil liberties invaded in such a way.

    He certainly doesn't care about ours!

  27. Justin White
    Paris Hilton

    Sure-fire methods to counteract Phorm

    METHOD #1 - Widely deploy IPv6 as the defacto Internet standard, so we can encrypt all the data between client and server. I can't wait for this day, to piss off the "security conscious" among us.

    METHOD #2 - Force companies who take these snooping steps to pass along all profits to the end-users who produce the "creative works" that they are unrightfully exploiting. I guess this step would allow BT and Phorm to avoid being sued by the new organization sure to arise out of this, the Websurfing Industry Ass. of America (or similar).

    All I really can say beyond this is that these guys are just a bunch of wankers. Get a life. Exploit someone else.

    Paris, since she an subject-matter expert on wankers, exploitation and "creative works".

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    El'Reg doesn't exist!!!?

    "he said journalists would be out of a job without behavioural targeting."

    We don't have behavioural targeting now do we? You mean I'm imagining The Register? BBC News?

    Damn, I must be some kind of psychotic genius - but only in my rather large made up world of Internet news sites, speaking of which, what are you lot doing in here? Are you telepathic? Or did I make you up too?

    Good work TBL, now get on TV and get this out to the masses who can't see past the general media's cover up of Phorm.

    El'Reg, as always, good work on reporting on Phorm, I wish I'd seen this live.

  29. Sceptical Bastard

    Neo-Luddite retrenchment?

    Thank you El Reg for your detailed report. Keep shining the light in dark corners.

    If Ertugrul thinks privacy is a "Luddite" concept then he's a bigger k*nt than we thought. For once, I am proud to be labelled a Luddite.

    I doubt if the kuntard himself reads these comments but just in case he does, my personal message to him is that he is a parasitic spamming greedy pus-bubble who deserves to be bankrupted before dying slowly in unremitting pain.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    "exasperated Kent Ertugrul"

    He's not the only one! He'll get his chance in due course - possibly.

    The event was about "privacy" on the internet - something Ertugrul would seem to care little about.

    It would seem that his basic argument logic is as follows:

    The internet is about advertising products (??)

    User profiling has always happened (??)

    I have developed a more sophisticated tool for focused ad delivery (?! & illegal when used?)

    My business model requires me to promote it or my shareholders will be "upset" (too bad...)

    Focused advertising is inevitable (- or worse unless you subscribe to my way!!!) (really)

    Please, please, please let me have my way or I'll lose my shirt, you'll get stuffed anyway and I'll be forever known as Mr "Exasperated".

    T B-L and the others are absolutely right, IMHO, to hold out and hold forth against such nonsense.

    Two words of warning to all those who say "nah, not a problem with my privacy" - Credit Crunch.

    Those on the political and banking "inside" were initially telling us that debt was good and manageable. We're in the mire now! Yes, we'll come out the other side somehow but would be far better if we'd not got into the mess in the first place.

  31. Bobby
    Thumb Up

    Well said...

    I second everything Sir Tim Berners-Lee says as he's making perfect sense out of this whole damned web scam called Webwise.

  32. Wayland Sothcott
    Paris Hilton

    Small ISPs who go through BT

    Can anyone confirm weather small ISPs who effectively resell BT services under their own brand and IP ranges would be passing through PHORM servers?

  33. Peter Page

    He called Berners-Lee a Luddite!

    Going around inventing hypertext interweb thingamajigs is just so typical of these progress thwarting technology dodgers.

    The above is sarcasm, btw. It's the way I tell 'em.

  34. Thandar

    What?

    "Opposition to interception and profiling by ISPs represented "neo-Luddite retrenchment", Ertugrul said."

    There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't know where to begin!

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Go Tim go!

    From the article it sounds like Sir Tim certainly earned his knighthood that day (oh and my respect too). Good article too. :)

    "the magazine Prospect, which purportedly carries influence among the political class."

    It doesn't matter a damn what our elected lords and masters think - if Virgin/BT et al get the message loud and clear that signing a contract with Phorm is equivalent to a commercial suicide note then it ain't going to happen. Remember BT/Virgin/etc are doing what they do to make money and if they figure that Phorm is going to cost them more in lost subscribers than they'll get in revenue, then it's a dead duck (although snake or spider is probably more appropriate).

    Like others here (probably) I recently got a call from BT asking me to switch from Virgin to a slower but cheaper service from them. Pointed out that it was noticably slower, plus "I feel very uneasy doing business with a company that is planning to put in Phorm". Was then asked to explain what this was, before being asked to go on hold while marketing lass 'spoke to my supervisor'. After about two-three minutes she was back on with an apology for bothering me - end of discussion. Maybe this is a better way to erase Phorm - take every opportunity to make our group abhorrence of this illegal wiretapping known to the folks that seek to put it in.

    If Virgin (my current ISP) put it in then I'll be cancelling my TV and broadband contract as fast as possible. And if/when BT put it in then I'll seriously consider cancelling the phone contract I have with them. Okay, I'm not a big moneyspinner for either company, but to quote Tesco "every little helps!"

    Oh and Phorm - one message - "ODFO" :p

    @Danny Thompson: Virgin have gone very quiet on Phorm'ing you notice. Methinks they're seeing the vitriol hurled at BT and decided that they can well do without another excuse for folks to jump ship to Sky.

    (Black copter icon for the obvious reasons)

  36. Parax
    Alert

    Petition

    anyone had a response now the petiton has closed?

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Help - conparison required

    I don't fully appreciate the implications of what's going on. It helps to think about it from an old existing service.

    I use the phone. BT see what calls I make and send me a bill each quarter.

    Can they analyse the data of calls, see that I call Direct Line, B&Q and EDF Energy and then sell "profiled" anonomised data to Insurance companies, retailers and Energy companies ? Can they do this now or are we all protected ?

    Similarly, my credit card company knows where I spend my money. Can they "anonomise" the data and sell it on to retailers so I'm specifically targeted ?

    Are we starting down a slippery slope, are we already on it or am I worrying for no reason ?

  38. MJI Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Well done TBL

    Put that idiot K*nt in his place.

    As to Webwise - can't someone put them out of our misery?

    Black Helicopter - well that is what it feels like.

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You have no privacy...

    ...Get over it!

  40. Waggers
    Happy

    @Wayland Sothcott - "Small ISPs who go through BT"

    It will no doubt vary from ISP to ISP but according to official responses from some of the ISPs on this forum: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/showflat.php?Board=freenetname&Number=3281353&fpart=all&vc=1, it applies to BT retail only, so other ISPs won't be forced to adopt it by BT.

    In the case of Madasafish, they have no plans to implement it at all. I'd try Googling your ISP's name with the word "phorm" in the search string and see what comes up.

  41. Niall
    Happy

    PECR

    PECR ( pecker ) ? Really ? pffffffftt

  42. Mister_C

    el Reg cookies

    yes, lots of websites use cookies to monitor visitors activities.

    some use stupidly large numbers.

    BUT

    cookies can be blocked by the visitor (sometimes at the cost of site functionaluty - its a fair trade off)

    cookies can be tracked and accepted by the visitor

    cookies are stored on the visitor's confuser, so they can be reviewed (in theory) and deleted if required

  43. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Thumb Up

    Yeah well...

    Let's just wait until the first company to have it's details stored in Phorm, finds it's info sold to the highest bidder and the company starts an action against "C**t Urgh-Ghoul" and his wonderful little company for multi-billion pound loses!

    Well done TBL, about time we geeks stood up for what we believe, we have nothing to lose but our pocket PDAs with the Linux kernel source on it! ( Just as a little light reading on the way home of an evening you understand! )

  44. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Flame

    Titel

    To those claiming Kent doesn't care about privacy - not true. They [Phorm] have in fact gone to great lengths to try and make their 'service' palatable with regards to privacy (whether this has been achieved or not).

    The problem is the actual interception and the question of trust.

    We don't trust you Kent. Get it into your thick skull and just go away.

  45. Andus McCoatover

    Sounds a bit like..

    ..this is going the way of Turner's CEO Jamie Kellner who famously said that skipping ads was stealing??

    "So, Defendant, how do you plead?"

    "Guilty, M'lud"

    "Any mitigating circumstances?"

    Sorry, M'lud, but the adverts were boring, so I thought I'd give the missus a good 5-minute seeing-to"

    TIP! Keep ads shorter, less room for something for wife to moan about...

    (OK, it's called Phorn. With a silent 'h'. Isn't it?)

  46. Richard Jukes

    Clear cut case

    I'll keep it simple for the business people at phorm to understand.

    If the chap who invented the world wide web says no, its a bad idea. Accept it really is a stupid idea.

    The terrifying thing is that there are a lot of people out there who really dont know about this, and when told totally fail to grasp the implications. A simple approach is needed to these people down the pub; 'The guy who invented the internet jobby says Phorm, which is part of BT/Virgin is BAAAAD. And he invented mate. So go with someone else.'

    More beer drinking should then ensure.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    the Register list of cookies ..

    Fortunately I use a copy of Firefox and noscript stored on a USB device and deleted after each usage, so there's no point in tracking my usage. But I would still be interested in how these cookies got onto my machine. nir.theregister.co.uk, net.telecoms, doubleclick.net, quantserve.com

    http://noscript.net/

    http://www.torproject.org/

    http://archetwist.com/opera/operator

    --

    In Soviet Union people watch television, in Peoples Republic of UK, television watch you ...

  48. Tony

    @AC 11:43

    "I don't fully appreciate the implications of what's going on" - "Are we starting down a slippery slope, are we already on it or am I worrying for no reason ?"

    Imagine this:

    You decide to take your partner to the city for a weekend break. You go online, book a cheap hotel room. They also link you through to their "partners" to book transport - you like that as it makes it easier. However, they then sell that data.

    So over the next few days, you get several emails, telephone calls, text messages, all offering you bargains, if you switch your hotel, travel plans etc.

    If you decide to go via public transport, you find a small screen on the back of the seat in front of you - it plays non-stop adverts all aimed at selling you stuff relating to your trip. If you decide to go by car, the digital radio is linked into the national marketing database, and the advert slots are also specifically positioned to make offers that you might want.

    You eventually get to the city and take a cab to the hotel; in the back is a screen, and it detects from the RFID in your travel ticket who you are. It then targets you with more offers; it's valentines day, so they assume you are there for a spot of romance and you get umpteen offers of restaurants, jewellers etc all promising special deals.

    You get to the hotel; the TV in the room has non stop advertising all targeted at you to get you to change your plans and spend yet more cash. More restauarants, tourist spots, florists, wedding planners, photographers etc.etc.etc

    You decide to get away from the madness and take a stroll; every shop you go by detects your mobile and you get a text every 15 seconds as you pass yet another store promising even more wonderful deals if you go in and buy now.

    Couldn't happen? The technology is already in place; they just need to tweak the data mining functions a bit. There are various companies that are already experimenting with exactly this approach. And Phorm is poised to provide them with exactly the data that they need.

    For me, this is a vision of hell - it's a world that I do not want to live in and would not want forced on anyone else.

    There may be people that want this; I suspect that the only ones are those who are aiming to make money out of it.

  49. Robert Hill
    Flame

    Stop buying DRUGS NOW

    No, seriously - if you are concerned that companies like Phorm may be monitoring where you go in the interneet, and this is big news to you, then you should REALLY be more scared of companies like IMS Healthcare. IMS buys nearly ALL transaction data on pharma sales, supposedly anonomyized, and then packages and sells that data to pharma companies (and perhaps others) to improve their marketing and compensate their sales people.

    Which threatens you more - the fact that a company somewhere has data on what sites you visit on the web, or the fact that a company knows explicitly that you are on antidepressants, or drugs to combat addiction, etc.?

    The point I am trying to make is that this stuff goes on ALL THE TIME, in every marketplace. Got a Tesco clubcard? That is probably far more revealing about who you are and what you do than the data Phorm has For that matter, Google CERTAINLY knows more about what you are and what you do than Phorm does, and your mobile company probably does as well.

    The raw data already exists about you and is stored in a multiplicity of sites. That's part of modern life. Figuring out what advertisements you may wish to see is hardly the most intrusive of possible uses...

  50. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @Robert Hill

    But I can CHOOSE to use my Tesco Clubcard (I don't use or own one) and I can CHOOSE to use Google or not.

    I buy my healthcare over the counter, paying in cash if I am buying something sensitive. Try tracking that!

    If Virgin goes with Phorm, then yes, I can CHOOSE to leave Virgin. And I will. Simply because if I stay with Virgin I'll have no CHOICE but to give away my browsing habits. Opt out? Only if I stop deleting my cookies. And Phorm still gets my data through their systems even when opted out. No thanks.

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like