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Government advised Phorm advertising technology may be ‘illegal’

Concerns are mounting over the possible introduction of the Phorm advertising system by major ISPs in the UK.

Phorm last month revealed an exclusive agreement with BT, Talk Talk and Virgin to offer their online advertising technology to its users.  The advertising platform is intended to show relevant ads to users according to their web browsing habits, and what they search for online.

Concerns have been raised by members of the public regarding the opt-in policy of the new advertising platform.  It appears that users have to opt-out of the system rather than opt-in. A Downing Street petition was set up asking to stop ISP’s from breaching customers privacy via advertising technologies and currently has over 7,000 signatures. 

This has also prompted a leading think tank on Internet policy, the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) into taking action.

The FIPR believes the system will process sensitive data illegally.  In a letter to the Government’s Information Commissioner, the FIPR expressed its concerns about the processing of users’ personal (and possibly sensitive) data.  Although the Phorm system does have a privacy mechanism in place, which includes giving pseudonyms to users, it is still theoretically possible to identify the end user.

Phorm’s advertising system may also be able to examine the content of users’ emails, chat rooms and social networking sites.  Some sites however are excluded.

“The need for both parties to consent to interception in order for it to be lawful is an extremely basic principle within the legislation, and it cannot be lightly ignored or treated as a technicality,” said Nicholas Bohm, General Counsel at the FIPR. 

 ”Even when the police are investigating as serious a crime as kidnapping, for example, and need to listen in to conversations between a family and the criminals, they must first obtain an authorisation under the relevant Act of Parliament: the consent of the family is not by itself sufficient to make their monitoring lawful.”  

Last week, the ORG (Open Rights Group) also called for a further investigation into how Phorm works, following similiar concerns over users’ privacy.  In response, Phorm issued a statement saying: “Our technology complies with the Data Protection Act, RIPA and other applicable UK laws. Consumers are in control – they can switch the service off or on.”