Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon To Block Phorm Scans

Posted by Soulskill on from the take-this-dpi-and-shove-it dept.

clickclickdrone writes "The BBC are reporting that Amazon has said it will not allow online advertising system Phorm to scan its web pages to produce targeted ads. For most people this is a welcome step, especially after the European Commission said it was starting legal action against the UK earlier this week over its data protection laws in relation to Phorm's technology. Anyone who values their privacy should applaud this move by Amazon."

2 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. You're Starting at the Wrong End by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anyone who values their privacy should applaud this move by Amazon.

    Thank you for telling me how to think. I believe we are approaching this from the wrong end (why start with websites?).

    The article hints at two other points I would encourage Brits who care to be vocal about:

    Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: We expect more sites to block Webwise in the near future and also ISPs to drop plans to snoop on web users.

    Write your ISPs. Threaten to change ISPs even if you're not able to. Let them know how this makes you feel.

    The European Commission has described the technology as an "interception" of user data and wants UK law to reflect more explicitly the need for consent from users in order for the service to be implemented.

    As always, contact your parliamentary representative and also EU representative and let them know how you feel about this.

    These would be much more effective options than asking each website that exists to request Phorm not scan their site.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  2. Re:How do I opt my website out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Kind of useless really. Crawlers using robots.txt are supposed to uniquely identify themselves, so that you may block specific crawlers. Phorm doesn't do this - instead, it processes directives intended for Google, Yahoo, and all crawlers.

    Effectively, the only way to block Phorm with robots.txt would also block all search engines. That makes it effectively impossible to do, while still allowing them to claim that it can be done.

    Bastards.

    Anyway, if there were a way to block just Phorm using robots.txt, you can bet that as soon as a couple of major sites start doing it, Phorm will start ignoring it.