Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

Finally - but not until after invading their customers' privacy - BT have pulled out of Phorm. Worth half a cheer - unless it's supposed to push Phorm into administration so they can buy it cheaply.

Hope the European Court throws the book at both BT and the Government.

Phorm plunges as BT pulls ad system -

• Phorm in talks with potential partners in 15 countries
• Shares fall by 40%

Shares in Phorm, the Aim-listed technology firm, have plunged after it emerged that BT has quietly pulled plans to roll-out its controversial advertising system, which tracks the internet habits of customers and has been attacked as online snooping by privacy campaigners.

BT was a key player in the development of Phorm's Webwise system, which uses information about which sites an internet user visits to target them with relevant advertising on subsequent pages. News that BT has effectively mothballed the technology sent shares in Phorm down 40% by lunchtime today.

"The news is disappointing," said James Wheatcroft, analyst at Evolution Securities. "The UK has been persistently difficult for Phorm and this remains the case. However, we retain our positive recommendation based on overseas development and deployment, in particular Korea. The fundamental Phorm proposition remains highly attractive."

....

BT carried out secret tests of the technology in 2006 and 2007 which are now the basis of a European commission investigation into the UK government's failure to protect its citizens online. Last year, BT carried out a proper consumer trial of Phorm's technology. The results have been keenly awaited, not just by management at Phorm – whose chairman is the former chancellor Norman Lamont – but by its other two potential partners, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

BT has decided not to proceed with rolling out Webwise to its 4.8m broadband customers, dealing a heavy blow to Phorm. The company said the decision was down to its need to conserve resources as it looks to invest £1.5bn in putting a next-generation super-fast broadband network within reach of 10m homes by 2012. Privately, however, BT bosses have been increasingly concerned about consumer resistance to advertising based on monitoring users' online behaviour and specifically about the backlash against Phorm.

;;;

The UK government is understood to have opted its domain names – such
as www.direct.gov.uk – out of Webwise amid concerns about privacy.
Although ISPs, media companies and even some politicians see Phorm as a
way for UK companies to claw back some share of the internet
advertising market from the clutches of Google, Sir Tim Berners-Lee,
the web's creator, has criticised it as unjustifiable online snooping.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

How come the Government gets to opt its domains out and the rest of us don't?  How would such 'opting out' work?  Or is it just collected anyway?

Interesting comment in the thread on the Guardian

• 
  
  
  
  edgeofdrabness
  

  06 Jul 09, 4:03pm (about 4 hours ago)

  
  

  
  

  "this is nothing more than a PR move by BT using Phorm as the bad guy "

  Quite probably.

  "BT were just as much aware of the secret trail as Phorm were)."

  Really? How does that work then?

  Incidentally,
  did you know that the Chief Technology Officer at BT Retail at the time
  of the denied trial is now coincidentally Chief Technology Officer at
  Phorm? Small world, isn't it.

  http://www.phorm.com/about/exec_scleparis.php

Just one of those co-incidences perhaps...