BT Phorm trial a ‘success’ – ‘move towards deployment’ expected soon
BT’s trial of the controversial targeted advertising platform, Phorm, has ended with both parties reporting success and a commitment to ‘move towards deployment’.
The trial began two and a half months ago to establish if the technology could be used on real life which, Phorm claims, it has shown it can.
“The trial achieved its primary objective of testing all the elements necessary for a larger deployment, including the serving of small volumes of targeted advertising,” the spokesman confirmed.
“There will now be a period of joint analysis of the results. Following the successful completion of analysis, both of the trial results and of any changes required for expansion, BT has informed us that it expects to move towards deployment.”
A similar sounding statement has also been released by BT to SamKnows revealing the ISP is satisfied the technology works and it is likely to be rolled out across its network next year.
“The trial has now concluded and achieved its primary objective of testing all the elements necessary for a larger deployment, including the serving of small volumes of targeting advertising. There will now be a period of joint analysis of the results. Following successful completion of analysis of both the trial results and of any changes required for expansion, BT’s expectation is to move towards deployment.”
The technology has proven controversial because privacy campaigners have voiced concerns over its ability to track an ISP’s subscriber base as they surf around the web. Phorm has always maintained that its software does not store personally identifiable details of people who opt in; it anonymises surfers and just stores which interests they have, judged by their surfing history.
In the Spring the Information Commissioner ruled the platform was legal so long as it was only offered on an opt-in basis and that people who had opted in were offered regular reminders they had opted-in and were given details of how they could opt-out.
The ruling and then subsequent failure of privacy campaigners to secure a police investigation of a claimed earlier secret trial of the technology paved the way for the Autumn trial.
Following the successful completion of this first public trial of the system (Phorm claims to have a trial running outside the UK but will not give further details) it looks very likely that BT will roll out the offer of its WebWise product across its subscriber base. WebWise combines an anti-phishing filter with the Phorm technology so that in return for allowing the technology to track their tastes, opt-in surfers are given extra protection from landing on phishing sites.
Phorm is still being evaluated by Virgin Media and TalkTalk. Both ISPs have expressed an interest in using the technology and have put down a lack of action, beyond initial interest, to the technology being complex and so worth of serious and thorough investigation. Both deny any accusation they have been waiting for BT to trial the system to gauge how well it works and if a trial would arouse a public outcry.
Tags: BT, Phorm, TalkTalk, Virgin Media
