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BT Drops Phorm, Citing More Pressing Priorities
Tom DBA notes a story up at The Register that begins "BT has abandoned plans to roll out Phorm's controversial web monitoring and profiling system across its broadband network, claiming it needs to concentrate resources on network upgrades... BT's announcement comes a day before MPs and peers of the All Party Parliamentary Communications Group are due to begin an investigation of Internet privacy. Their intervention follows the EU's move to sue the UK government over its alleged failure... properly [to] implement European privacy laws with respect to the trials, drawing further bad publicity to the venture." We've discussed Phorm many times in the past.
How do we know Phorm didn't use deep packet inspection/manipulation to show us this article while in fact it's not there.....
Now I still have to find an appropriate Matrix quote and my tin foil hat.
That's its name these days. Nobody, not even themselves, call it "British Telecom".
Has anyone used the n2n peer VPN?
It would be neat if such solutions were built into the popular distros; with all the monitoring creeping up around us it is about time that our PCs defaulted to encrypted traffic.
That's its name these days. Nobody, not even themselves, call it "British Telecom".
At one time people were jokingly calling them Bombay Telecom. At least until India changed the name of the city.
BT (British Telecom) was rebranded years ago and is most widely known as BT. This is because they are an International Company and did not want to be only associated with operating in the UK.
See:
http://paulrobertlloyd.com/articles/britain_rebranded/
"British companies now operate on a global scale and many had decided that any British associations were not good for business. A look at the number of privatised companies that have changed their names will tell you this. British Telecom was one of the first when it became BT in the early nineties - when many other national telecom companies - France Telecom and Deutche Telecom for example haven't felt the need. British Gas (now BG) and British Steel (now Corus) are two recent examples."
Slashdot Beta should die a painful death.
"[Our decision has] nothing to do with cost or privacy, it's about resources and priority,"
http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/BTsHistory/History.htm "BT - a new name and identity for British Telecom" - since 2 April 1991...
awwwwwwww go throw your toys out the pram
BT has been around since the 1980's and operates in over 170 countries....
I think that beats bit torrent...
guys, please stop calling it BP, for most of the world BP is Brooklyn Philharmonic
-errrr ... NOOOOO!
This "focusing revenues" sounds a lot like an equation which didn't work out well for Phorm.
On one had is the money they "could" make by introducing it by adverts, on the other is the potential number of existing customers who will jump to another ISP added to the number of potential customers not even looking at BT as an option when switching from their ISP. Their current subscribers direct debits are guaranteed income with most subscribers not bothering to look around. Not to mention dealing with Phorm gives you the badge of a pariah.
They could be right, in that it's more profitable to drop Phorm. That said, I'm not sure they dropped it permanently. They seem to have bought into the DPI advert injection model, so no doubt they will only put it into the "let's get back to that after the broohaha has calmed down" box before being reintroduced a couple of years from now under a different name with lessons learned about "how not to get caught". They may still face further legal / political fallout over what they've done to date with Phorm, so dropping Phorm may help mitigate any sanctions.
For those who are currently with BT and have reconsidered moving away after this announcement I say "watch this space, BT have proven themselves perfectly willing to fuck their customers over once, they will do it again". BT think they have done no wrong. They can't be trusted. They avoided police action in the UK, they may yet avoid other punishment, but consumers CAN punish them.
Shortcut???? surely you mean acronym which is still incorrect given that British Telecom changed its name in the early 90's to BT as others in here have already pointed out. Lets see BitTorrent has been around for what about 6 or 7 years which one do you think has prior art???
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
No - see BT's History page "BT - a new name and identity for British Telecom" - since 2 April 1991...
Moreover, BT the (global) telecommunications company has used this brand long before BitTorrent existed. Might I suggest he stops calling BitTorrent BT to avoid himself getting confussed?
Also, AT&T don't call themselves American Telephone & Telegraph Company in all their advertising literature and billing, do they? Perhaps for the hell of it he could stop referring to them as AT&T because he might also easily confuse their name with AT&T.
Alternatively, he could just use wikipedia's disambiguation before posting silly requests.
British Gas is still British Gas.
Though confusingly they're an "energy" company now, not just gas. They do my electricity.
Though they are technically just a brand of Centrica now, but that matters little because Centrica is one of the companies that the original British Gas split into, so they are still (indirectly) the original British Gas. The sourcing side of British Gas split to become BG, but that side of the company wasn't what most people in the UK would understand as "British Gas" anyway.
Also, wtf they have a youtube channel.
I often confuse AT&T with running my old modem in test mode
That firehose thingy has a few dozen submissions, but hitting the "+" doesn't really do anything.
I still think Bastard Telecom is the most appropriate.
Too late, BTbroadband. I recently ended my 'unlimited' (which is actually limited) service with them and moved to a provider who doesn't think its OK to inspect and modify my traffic in order to make advertising revenue.
As a bonus, I get a truly unlimited connection which is over 3x faster than BT could offer, a one month rolling contract, no cancellation fee, no port blocking and a nice cPanel customer portal, all for about 3GBP more a month. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4002-talktalk-follow-suit-on-phorm.html
I hope nobody owns Phorm shares...
wot no sig
Might I suggest he stops calling BitTorrent BT to avoid himself getting confussed?
BitTorrent is way too formal, anyway. Unless we're talking about the protocol itself, it's just torrent.
they are still the biggest ISP in the UK
This is a legacy of the old state run monopoly system. Companies like British Telecom, British Gas etc have a strong hold on the public imagination so despite consistently performing worse and charging more they still hold sway over more dynamic, newer companies who struggle against their entrenched power. The watchdog system that was put in place after the monopolies were sold off is supposed to maintain the balance but struggles in the face of corporate lobbying . . .
Well, I for one, say that BT (BitTorrent) is way more important than the British Telecom, and therefore, I use the abbreviation accordingly. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
..also BP no longer stands for British Petroleum - it's now Beyond Petroleum, which I thought was quite inspired of them.
BT (BitTorrent) operates in ALL countries, and even on space stations. And it has way more "customers" than the British Telecom.
Hell, all those broadband connections would not be needed, were it not for BitTorrent.
So who is beating who here? ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
BT is short for "British Telecommunications PLC." It hasn't been called "British Telecom" since the '80s.
sorry ... I believe even ....
wait, troll - feed ... will not... must not ... must prevail... ... mmmk thanks. you just carry on living in your own little world. :)
Citation: http://www.oss.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/7/8/carphone-warehouses-talktalk-wont-roll-out-phorm/
lameness filter we love you, lameness filter yes it's true, without your constant content cravings, no one'd read my poetic ravings.
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
That doesn't change the fact that I had no idea what BT was, and I still didn't know after reading the summary. 'Telecom' should've been in there somewhere.
BT by itself and the only thing my puny brain comes up with is, of course, BitTorrent.
That's its name these days. Nobody, not even themselves, call it "British Telecom".
It's a bit like Kentucky Fried Chicken going to KFC only without the chicken. Or maybe not.
I always get a good chuckle whenever i see BBC America... haha, oh BBC. Not like they could have used ABC though... they should have partnered, it would have been as easy as 1,2,3.
Easy to do - the speeds are about the same.
Slashdot is global. Around where I live, BT means Bankers Trust, and BA is bugger all.
Please don't use 2-letter local abbreviations in a global forum, at least not on the first mention in a summary. OK?
I recall the Yes, Minister Episode where the minister is stringently against invasion of privacy and tapping, but when his life is on the line he accepts the recommendations to tap telephone lines.
In short, all BT has to do to implement this is to show the peers and MPs a real-life example of Yes, Minister episode!
Voila!
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
That's funny, I always wonder why there's an American security agency dedicated to running modems with factory defaults.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Following straight on TalkTalk the second biggest ISP in the UK also ditches Phorm .... another 13% of the shares not a good week for them
BT is now dropping Phorm, after a career of dropping Phat beats.
The "British" brand has not been a mark of quality in Europe for anything but pop-music for at least 30 years.
(personally I blame it on shoddy management)
However, there is a glaring fact that needs to be made clear. The Internet, by design, is a public domain. If you put something on the Internet and someone else has an interest in what you have to published. They will see it. If you do not want certain people to see what you have published. Do not put it on the Internet.
I'm the parent poster.
My point is that this was major tech news. And hours after the news broke, it still hadn't appeared on the front page. It should have been there minutes after the announcement seeing as it's major news nerds. Even that gnat in the technology-news arena, Republica, managed to report it before it appeared here. Slashdot should be waaaaaaay ahead of the crowd in reporting interesting IT stories.
I'm not decrying the Phorm story: I'm also in the UK and have an interest in it, and I'm glad it was published, but to have it appear while news of a major development in the operating-system-wars is sitting in the queue shows that there's a problem in the editorial flow.
There's an American security agency called "AT&F"?
Though confusingly they're an "energy" company now, not just gas. They do my electricity.
And Southern Electric do my gas.
Around where I live, BT means Bankers Trust, and BA is bugger all.
In the states, BA (Bank of America) is pretty much "bugger all" as well.
They miss out the ampersand in the abbreviation.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Do you get confused when you visit www.bt.com ?
British Steel (now Corus)
WHAT? They renamed British Steel? But that was one of Judas Priest's best albums!
..also BP no longer stands for British Petroleum - it's now Beyond Petroleum, which I thought was quite inspired of them.
No, it's just "BP" (actually "BP p.l.c."). Just because they chose a marketing slogan which (obviously on purpose) has the same initials, doesn't mean that it's name is anything other than just "BP".
Your political correctness bullshit reveals to us that you are truly an idiot.
There is nothing politically correct about avoiding confusion, or by not using abbreviations that most people outside of where you live will not understand. Your ignorance reveals to us that you are truly, well, an ignoramus.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Kindly phuck off.
Regards
BT
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Or, confusingly, for BT Group plc, the holding company.
=== Ask yourself if it's really necessary...
that's ok then, we'll all bow down to you...
*rim shot*
Bluetooth used phorm?
Who knew?
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
Let's just hope that BT (British Telecom) doesn't start blocking BT (BitTorrent). Then we'll all be in BT (Big Trouble) with the BTs (Bloody Trolls).
I more often than not confuse AT&T with Y&T the crap LA rock band from the late 80s! Easily done, both showed early promise but then failed completely to live up to expectations when money and interest flooded in!
*rim shot*
http://www.instantrimshot.com/
That's its name these days. Nobody, not even themselves, call it "British Telecom".
It's a bit like Kentucky Fried Chicken going to KFC only without the chicken. Or maybe not.
I've long suspected that KFC doesn't use chicken anymore.