Slashdot Mirror
Phorm "Edited and Approved" UK Government Advice
Barence was one of several readers to send in word that the UK Home Office checked whether its interpretation of the law suited Phorm, before issuing advice on the legality of the controversial advertising service. The Home Office and Phorm entered a dialogue about the company's services back in August 2007, at Phorm's request. In an email sent to Phorm in January 2008, a Home Office official writes: 'I should be grateful if you would review the attached document, and let me know what you think.' After Phorm made deletions and amendments to the document, the Home Office sent another email to the company stating: 'If we agree this, and this becomes our position do you think your clients and their prospective partners will be comforted.' From the BBC: "Baroness Sue Miller, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Home Affairs, told BBC News: 'My jaw dropped when I saw the Freedom of Information exchanges. ... Anything the Home Office now says about Phorm is completely tainted.'"
What is Phorm?
What is "Home Office"?
What is the relationship between the two?
If the summary were a physical object, I'd rate it about a 3 out of 7132.
That, kids, is what regulatory capture looks like. More specifically, that is what public sector big brother and private sector big brother sharing a big sloppy kiss looks like. Pathetic.
Am I the only one who has no idea who or what Phorm is?
For everyone else like me, a quick google search tells me that it is a company that makes advertising software that borders on spyware. I think the UK's argument that Phorm is okay since it can be used in a legal is entertaining. Sounds like the exact opposite argument that the same politicians probably used to shutdown P2P services.
Ahhh, corruption. Where would democracy be without it?
How are we sopposed to threaten to move to another country if they all suck?
Where's our cheap space travel? Oh, and somewhere to travel to.
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.*
... some time later I had a reply from the Cabinet Minister under whose remit this fell....And that reply was awful. Essentially it was Phorm's press release. Not even regurgitated - the documents were straight from Phorm."
Specifically, this one. A quick quote from the relevant bit:
"
Was clear that the ministerial office and Phorm were either working rather more closely than they let on, or that the Minister in question had no clue and simply took everything on trust from Phorm.
Cheers,
Ian
*A UK Parliamentary phrase, for those that don't recognise it.
For those of you that don't know what the Home Office is, here you go.
... goosestepping towards fascism.
There is a war going on for your mind.
One of the good guys. The voting record http://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/baroness_miller_of_chilthorne_domer Baroness Miller http://suemiller.org.uk/
The Home Office's response can be viewed here.
Am I the only one who has no idea who or what Phorm is?
For everyone else like me, a quick google search tells me absolutely nothing valuable pertaining to 'Phorm.'
This makes me feel sick. If only more Sue Millers were elected...
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
RIAA/MPAA "Edited and Approved" US Government Advice
etc.
I am not left-handed, either!
It's time the UK grew a pair. It seems they bend over for most anyone these days.
If you want an ad-driven Internet, this is the sort of arrangement you are going to get.
The idea that a company shouldn't sell advertising that is specifically designed to raid one web sitefor the benefit of another is silly. Advertisers are going to do whatever they can to sell ads. We've gone way beyond selling banner ad space. Now you get advertising that is designed for specific customers at specific times.
I'd guess the next big thing will be something like ISP-inserted ads so if you type www.tigerdirect.com it pops up an ad for Newegg. Or, when you do do a search on a CNN site that you get a popup for an item at Sears related to whatever you were searching for on CNN. Advertising that is "relevent" but has nothing what so ever to do with the web site you were on - just related to what you were typing or clicking on.
How about a system that takes whatever you were doing on the web and has a telemarketer call you about a related product immediately?
We've just begun down the road of an ad-supported society. One where everything seems to be free, except somehow people are paying for all the advertising. Maybe individual people will be able to rent out product referrals, so you get paid every time you say "Coke". Can you imagine a conversation between two people, one getting paid to say "Coke" and the other getting paid to say "Pepsi"? How about displaying your sponsorship with logoware? You know, a hat with a Nike logo and a shirt with a Reebok logo?
Fantasy? I doubt it. The more people think they want stuff for free and keep on showing their desire for free stuff to marketers, the more "free", ad-supported stuff there will be. And the bigger Google grows the more it convinces people that they too can make money by selling ad space.
Just wow...
Phorm should already be a slashdot meme, they're a psychopathic pastiche of "Get the Facts" era Microsoft and SCO.
http://www.stopphoulplay.com/
The CEO is a spyware peddler who doth protest too much about "protecting privacy". Well beyond parody, this is A-grade comedy for geeks.
welcome our new phormless overlords.
Reply to That ||
Another day, another example of the venal, self serving, political class currently running the UK into the ground. I just wish people in the UK would wake up, get off their arses and go out and vote for anything other than the red themed (the one with the rose logo) or blue themed (the one with the torch logo) Conservative parties.
Honestly just go and vote for absolutely anybody else. Vote Liberal democrats, vote Monster Raving Loony, vote Green, vote for the Miss UK party, just make sure you vote and make sure it's not for either the red or blue parties. if necessary tactially vote to make sure the bastards are beaten. I'd love to see the day when we had a government comprised of an eclectic mix of all sorts of individuals.
The political class in this country treat its citizens with utter contempt and do not deserve a job of any sort, let alone one that allows them to ruin the lives of everyone else. If they're not putting their hand in our back pockets to pay for yet more luxury furnishings to their second homes (paid for by us) they're desperately trying to find more ways to micro manage and interfere with every last vestige of our personal lives.
I think Mr. Coleman (Killing Joke) puts it best in Implant with the line "You don't want to protect, you just want to fucking control".
Oh never mind Eastenders is on in a minute, followed by Match of the day, and it's all too difficult to think about. I suppose people do get the governments they deserve after all...
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
writes government policy.......this is nothing new, specially in the "civilized world". Surely it'd be more efficient in screwing people over if the role of "ministers" was downsized, as all they do is siphon off bribes from the bottom line.
Yet another example of why the system is broken and needs replacing with a citizen friendly democratic replacement.
You should see me post on a bad day (seriously). 2 spelling mistakes that I'm aware of or should that be "awear off" plus I owe you two '' and a handful of Capital Letters GYPGYP.
You may have heard of Subject Verb Object, "Absolutely disgusting", does not make a sentence. I can only suppose that you were referring to Phorms' questionable marketing practices, in which case we are in agreement.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
(really - look at StopPhoulPlay.com. It's really special.)
Beleaguered Internet advertising phirm Phorm is hitting back at critics with StopPhoulPlay.com, in an attempt to lure Internet activists into herniating from laughter.
"It is clear that the campaign against Phorm originates in the sinister manipulations of Alex Hanff and Marcus Williamson," said Kent Ertegun, CEO of Phorm, "who have used mind control lasers and the killer robot armies of the Open Rights Group and FIPR to deceive millions of Britons into a Communistic fervor of hatred against the engines of the free market and customer demand, the salesmen and marketers, the true creators and enablers of objective value."
The website, designed in Microsoft Word, uses the public relations format so successfully put into play by the ReligiousFreedomWatch.org site of the Church of Scientology, a community institution of flawless repute. StopPhoulPlay.org reveals how:
* At the age of five, Hanff REFUSED to share his crayons with the little girl next to him, saying she was "poopy" and would only draw a picture to be used against him.
* At age twelve, Williamson accepted MONEY from his mother to buy sweets, but not to tell schoolmates in case they wanted some.
* Hanff and Williamson may have attempted to access POTENTIALLY ILLEGAL images blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation.
* Hanff and Williamson have used WIKIPEDIA at least once in their lives.
* Hanff and Williamson INVADED POLAND in 1939.
"Given the persistence with which they propagate incorrect information, we cannot rule out the possibility that a competitor is involved," he said. "The competitor goes under the name 'reality.' Needless to say, we have no tolerance for an entity of such limited possibilities.
"These people are privacy pirates -- people who steal privacy online, off the coast of Somalia. With Internet guns! And drugs! And child pornography!"
Mr Hanff and Mr Williamson said they were unsure whether to sue Phorm into atomic dust for gross defamation or to just let them continue with their infallible public relations work. Phorm shares have dropped from 405p to being declared a serious infection risk by the World Health Organization.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
As is the case with so many things like this that appear to be governments colluding with the private sector to further commercial vested interest etc. etc., it is in fact just a result of the kind of people that work in the public sector in Britain.
Basically, most civil servants are marshmallow-soft, compliant yes-men who spend most of their time finding the line of least resistance for various reasons. Sometimes it's over work, sometimes it's lack of knowledge or confidence in the issues they are being asked to deal with, sometimes it's plain and simple childish naivetee. I don't know what was the reason here, but I don't think it was a conspiracy: it's just some poor public employee trying to do what they think is "right" and getting it hopelessly wrong. The same is the case with things like government and the music industry: the provider sector pays lobbyists to bombard, charm, bully (sometimes very aggressively), and otherwise apply very persuasive techniques against civil servants who basically know little else but the dreaming spires of Oxford and the poetry of Milton. Not surprisingly, the industry usually gets its way.
I don't know what we can do about this short of fighting fire with fire and privatizing the civil service, but I highly doubt this is conspiracy.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
This is probably another third party the government can use to tap the public. That or Plan B if this UK Communications Silo thing runs out of budget, which wouldn't surprise me given the current UK economy.
This is not just in response to BadAnalogyGuy's post but all the whiny bitchy "oh what's this, I've never heard of this before, I'm going to complain on the board! waah! waah! waah!"
Here's a clue for you, the world does not revolve around America - take your fat fingers out of your fat lazy asses and type the word Phorm into Google.
My guess is that Phorm promised the UK government that they would provide the Internet tracking data that the government wants. They will be able to track users in a way not possible by ISPs since Phorm's cookies will allow them to identify individual PCs behind NAT routers.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
You should also not vote for Red or Blue.
What the fuck does that even mean?
ARRGHH! You scurvy dog!
It means you get to walk the fsck'ing plank after yer keel-hauled, drawn-n-quartered***, and make a sacrifice of 72 virgin goatse's to the Corporate OverLords!
*parrot sounds off:*
"Polly wants a cracker!
***Yes, that's stretching it a bit...
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti