Cops back in on BT/Phorm case

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has called in City of London Police to assist as it decides whether to go to court over BT's covert trials of Phorm's web interception and profiling system.

The City force ran the original criminal investigation into the trials, which saw tens of thousands of BT customers' broadband traffic monitored without their knowledge or consent. The idea of Phorm's technology is to monitor users' behaviour at the ISP level in order to serve them appropriate adverts later. Privacy campaigners consider that this is worse than the tracking cookies already used for such purposes as the user has no visibility of the process and can gain control over it only with the ISP's assistance.

The City of London force declined to discuss its renewed role in the affair today. The CPS said the Square Mile cops have come back on board to assist in ongoing inquiries related to details around its original investigation.

It was claimed by privacy campaigners and legal commentators after The Register revealed the secret trials that BT and Phorm had committed offences under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which restricts covert wiretapping and interception of communications.

A file of evidence was handed to City of London Police, but detectives halted their investigation in September 2008 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/22/bt_phorm_police_drop/). In a statement they argued that no criminal offence had been committed because they perceived no criminal intent by the two firms.

Subsequently Alex Hanff, now of Privacy International, wrote to the CPS asking for leave to bring a private prosecution, which prompted the current inquiries by prosecutors.

A CPS spokesman today declined to comment on when a decision over prosecution might be taken.

The prosecution service has previously stated that it is considering expert opinions on the matter. The Register understands it has had some of this expert material on file since January.

Phorm announces Navegador for Brazilian ISPs

Phorm said it has signed deals to profile with five ISPs in Brazil. It will launch what it described as "the first phase of a country-wide roll-out" with Estadão, iG, Oi, Terra and UOL. Phorm will also deploy its content targeting system, Webwise Discover, branded as "Navegador".

According to the most recent statistics available from the International Telecommunication Union, there are more than 67 million internet users in Brazil, about 34 per cent of the population.

As was planned in the UK, Phorm will profile internet users' interests by intercepting their traffic and looking for keywords in the web pages they visit. It acts as an exchange, allowing advertisers to target individuals based on what they have recently browsed. The targeted ads will be served up on publisher sites which sign up to the exchange.

Chief executive Kent Ertugrul said: "Beyond Brazil, we have successfully completed two trials in Korea".

500 Days of Silence

Extract from nodpi.org...

It has been 500 days since Alex first asked the CPS for permission to bring a private prosecution against BT and Phorm for illegal and covert mass communication interception.

In that time, the CPS have been silent.

Before writing this post I asked the CPS to provide me with a statement. This is the statement they provided in full.

A CPS spokesperson said:

“The Crown Prosecution Service is working hard to review the evidence in this legally and factually complex matter. We have requested and received technical and expert evidence, some of which we have only recently received, and which is being very carefully considered. We are currently awaiting advice from a senior barrister which we will review before coming to a conclusion. We are giving the matter meticulous attention and will reach a proper and considered decision as soon as it is possible for us to do so.”

In those 500 days no action has been taken against Directors of BT or Phorm. Despite overwhelming evidence of illegal mass communication interception, computer misuse, fraud, commercial copyright infringement, data protection violations, and even failure to file documentation at Companies House.

Phorm UK Waves Goodbye to another Director

UK Phorm, which controversially worked with UK broadband ISPs (e.g. BT WebWise) to monitor what websites you visit for use in targeted advertising campaigns, has lost another member of its team as non-executive Director Stefan Allesch-Taylor steps down from their Board of Directors with immediate effect.

The Board apparently thanked Mr Allesch-Taylor for his contribution to its "development" over the last twelve months and wished him well in the future. Happily, for privacy campaigners at least, Phorm has gone rather quite after it was unable to cement support for its service. Major backers BT , Virgin Media and TalkTalk appeared to shelve adoption plans during the middle of last year.