The Digital Economy Bill has been having its first “line by line examination” in Parliament this week.
Archive for the ‘Privacy’ Category
Spain: prepay mobiles, filesharing websites threatened with closure
Maybe EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding wasn’t completely wide of the mark when she warned Spain over internet disconnections. Although the Spanish government says it has dismissed the idea of disconnecting individuals caught downloading illegal content from the internet, it has come up with new ways of severing communications services.
An estimated 3-4 million people [...]
TalkTalk: new EU measures will force Government disconnection rethink
One of the UK’s biggest ISPs says a late amendment to an European Union agreement on telecoms regulations means it’ll now be “almost impossible” for film studios and music labels to force ISPs to disconnect customers who are suspected of illegal files-sharing without obtaining a court order first. The so-called “Internet Freedom Provision” – deemed by the EU to “strengthen the rights of Internet users” – is part of a package of measures that could come into force as early as next year.
TalkTalk threatens to court Government over three-strikes
Now the Government’s put a timetable in place for its plans to disconnect persistent online pirates, one ISP is considering a counter-attack that could see more than individual file-shares up in court. TalkTalk says it may resort to legal action if Lord Peter Mandelson continues with his plans – and it’s not the only one unhappy with the business secretary.
BPI slams “shameful” BT
After BT made the claim that getting tough on Internet piracy would cost around £1 million per day, the body representing the music industry has launched a counter-offensive. BPI boss Geoff Taylor says broadband companies have seen their revenues rising while those of the record business have gone the opposite way because of piracy – and that the ISP’s stance is “just about protecting profits.”
Musicians unite against disconnection plans, back on YouTube
While the mainstream media were getting themselves worked up about YouTube and PRS finally coming to a financial settlement, it has emerged a band of bodies representing major musicians is mounting a protest against the Government’s recent u-turn on the road towards Digital Britain. The coalition, which the likes of Sir Paul McCartney and Damon Albarn associate themselves with, says the ministers’ new proposals are “extremely negative,” expensive and just don’t make sense.
Profile: IAB’s Nick Stringer on making behavioural targeting transparent
Behavioural targeting may have been given a rough ride by criticisms levelled at the ill-fated Phorm platform but the technology actually already accounts for around 10% to 15% of the country’s £637m online display market.
Not only is that market share set to increase to around 20% by the end of the year, the practice is [...]
BT says no to Phorm: Is this the end?
BT today revealed it is not going to roll out Phorm, prompting the interest based advertising company to counter the assumption that this spells the end of its involvement in the UK market.
Certainly City investors would appear to think its days are numbered in London. By lunch time today, following BT’s decision, Phorm shares had [...]
Changing Phorm? No ISP, no customers, no ads prompts new publisher offensive
At around the same time as Sir Alan tells one would-be Apprentice ‘you’re fired’ tonight, Phorm will be launching what it claims has always been the ‘missing piece’ in its ‘rounded offering’.
However, one can only imagine what the business guru would have to say to Phorm if he were there in person. With six months [...]
New Microsoft search engine could go off with a Bing
With a launch expected very soon, it looks like Microsoft is planning to ditch the “Kumo” moniker from its new search engine and go to market with an altogether different name. The Redmond giant is reportedly putting aside a hundred million dollars to market its new Google wannabe and, if the name does end up being “Bing,” it could need every cent.
University hijacks Torpig botnet, cracks 56,000 passwords in an hour
Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) have been able to infiltrate and hijack the Torpig botnet for ten days before they were locked out – and just published a paper on their findings. During their time in control the infamous botnet (also known as Sinowal) managed to steal 70 gigabytes of data [...]
Home Office accused of “jaw dropping” Phorm “collusion”
The Home Office has been accused of “colluding” with behaviour advertising firm Phorm after correspondence between the two was published. The Government department has previously denied giving the company “any advice directly relating to possible criminal liability for the operation of their advertising platform in the UK.” Now it might have to change its [...]
Amazon blocks Phorm but won’t say why
After news yesterday that Phorm could be getting the U.K. Government in trouble with the European courts, Amazon UK has announced it’s not going to let the behaviour-advertising system scan its web pages. The controversial technology – which is marketed under the name Webwise – works by scanning for keywords in the pages an Internet [...]
UK goes to bottom of the Phorm as EU prepares to take it to court over privacy fears
The European Commission has said it is going to take the UK to court over its failure to enforce european privacy and data protection laws — and it’s all because of Phorm. Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding has for the past few months been conversing with the Information Commissioner’s Office about the online advertiser’s controversial methods [...]
ISPs now have to keep user data for one year
New European Union legislation comes into effect today forcing Internet Service Providers to hold on to data for 12 months on how we use the internet. The measures include details about who you send emails to or talk with using online phone clients like Skype – but not the content of such correspondence. Data about [...]
Some Good News at BT as Share Price Drops.
BT’s share price fell below £1 yesterday, a 25 year low, on the announcement of the 3rd Quarter financial results but there was some good news around in the broadband area. While the pension fund tanked from a £2bn surplus to a £2bn deficit and BT Global Services lost £0.5bn in a quarter, BT Retail’s broadband revenue [...]
Phorm denies London changes mean giving up on America
Phorm is refuting suggestions that strategic differences have caused four senior board directors to quit and is also denying the departures show it is giving up on the America market.
Despite the departing American-based chairman and chief operating officer being replaced by non executives directors based in London, a spokesman for the company is adamant that [...]
OFCOM launches new consumer guides
OFCOM has added consumer guides on Slamming and Unsolicited calls to their website. These two areas generate over 1,000 calls per month to OFCOM from consumers.
The unsolicited calls guide includes silent calls made by automatic dialler systems where the recipient is connected to an operator but hears silence if no operator is available.
Slamming is the [...]
Orange snubs Phorm, but Virgin Media and Carphone still on track
Although the customer tracking advertising platform Phorm received a blow this week when it was publicly snubbed by Orange, it can take solace that Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse have assures Sam Knows they are keen to carry on evaluating the technology.
The advertising platform is no stranger to controversy. BT began a trial at the [...]
Phorm goes live with BT
After months of hype, public demonstrations, threatened legal action, a government review and recurring BT promises of a service “in the next few weeks”; Phorm finally launches on BT today under the Webwise brand name.
The controversial technology tracks web surfing histories for ISP customers (who have opted-in) and so can serve more relevant advertising which [...]
