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BT Drops Phorm, Citing More Pressing Priorities

Posted by kdawson on from the absurdly-invasive dept.

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.

10 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Not BitTorrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I think this has always been said in previous articles, but guys, please, stop using "BT" as a shortcut for "British Telecom".
    For most of the world, BT is BitTorrent.

    1. Re:Not BitTorrent by Nossie · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      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. :)

  2. 100% off topic - a small complaint by Bozovision · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I would like to point out that the BBC, Boingboing, South Africa's Mail & Guardian, the UK's Daily Mirror, the bloody Katmandu, Nepal based Republica, and 632 news sources managed to report the announcement of Google Chrome OS before it was a glimmer in Slashdot's eye.

    A very poor show for Slashdot, which is supposed to be news for nerds, stuff that matters.

    1. Re:100% off topic - a small complaint by MichaelSmith · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Clearly the slashvertisment cheque hasn't come in yet.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:100% off topic - a small complaint by ChienAndalu · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      That firehose thingy has a few dozen submissions, but hitting the "+" doesn't really do anything.

    3. Re:100% off topic - a small complaint by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      If there was ever a post worthy of being modded into offtopic oblivion, it's the parent post.

      If you want a story, write one. Slashdot is powered by our submissions. Personally, as a Brit, I'm quite enjoying the coverage of Phorm.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    4. Re:100% off topic - a small complaint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      The POINT of the parent is that this story broke before, there are like 6 submissions of it in the firehose and last I checked one of them was red. Why the hell is it not on the mainpage already?

    5. Re:100% off topic - a small complaint by 4D6963 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      You forgot all of Slashdot's direct concurrents, Digg included. No need for more proof that Slashdot is utterly failing at being a news source. It's a cool place to discuss the news, but it's as for a place to get news from it could be much better than it is.

      --
      You just got troll'd!
    6. Re:100% off topic - a small complaint by Bozovision · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      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.

  3. *ahem* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    http://slashdot.org/popular

    *cough*