FYI: The Register | EU mulls intervention over BT's secretPhorm trials.

[Chris Salter]

Hello Ukcrypto,

FYI: The Register | EU mulls intervention over BT's secret Phorm trials.

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The European Commission is considering intervening over the failure of
UK data watchdogs to punish BT for the way it secretly co-opted tens
of thousands of customers into trials of Phorm's profiling system to
serve them targeted advertising.

At the end of May, the Information Commissioner's Office told Stephen
Mainwaring, whose web browsing was tapped and profiled during the 2007
trial, that it would not pursue BT over alleged breaches of the
European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

The ICO's letter claims that because it would have been hard for BT to
explain to customers what it was doing with their broadband
connections, regulators should let the secret trials pass. "Taking
into account the difficulties involved in providing meaningful and
clear information to customers... in this case, this is not an issue
we intend to pursue further with BT," the regulator wrote.

Now however, the European Commission is considering calling BT to
account in lieu of a domestic response. A European Commission
spokeswoman told The Register on Monday: "We are continuing to monitor
this closely. If need be we will take action."

People who feel strongly about the trials or believe they were
unwittingly profiled in 2006 or 2007 should write to Viviane Reding,
the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, the
spokeswoman said. The Downing Street petition calling for government
action has now passed the 14,000 signature mark.

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For Full Text see

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/10/eu_bt_phorm_trial/

-- 
 Chris Salter                      mailto:ukcrypto@originalthinktank.org.uk
 Cornwall United Kingdom        http://www.originalthinktank.org.uk/