Phorm and consent

[Ian Batten]

On 9 Mar 2008, at 18:04, Roland Perry wrote:
>
> Phorm is apparently inserting adverts, but I'm still not clear =20
> whether those inserted adverts replace an advert the original =20
> webpage was serving (eg to non-Phormed end users), replacing a blank =20=

> space, or is somehow in addition to what was on the page originally.

Most of those would be extremely dubious.  An ISP which removed the =20
origin server's paid-for advertising and replaced it with the ISP's =20
own paid-for advertising would, I hope, become a leper at the next =20
ISPA meeting.  I would be equivalent to my newsagent getting into my =20
Guardian and pasting adverts for the local curry takeaway [*] over =20
those expensive adverts that Nationwide buy.  Mucking with the =20
whitespace would be against those old ``not sold in a mutilated form =20
or other binding'' provisions in books for the seventies and eighties, =20=

and I suspect there is a more modern analogue --- just because I give =20=

you the right to read the content of my website doesn't mean I give =20
you the right to distribute it in a mash-up, which would be what such =20=

modification would be doing.

However, I don't think this is Phorm's gig.  I think what the Guardian =20=

has signed up to do is sell its advertisers ``we'll place your adverts =20=

with suitable readers''. So I go to the Guardian and say ``I want to =20
advertise my product in your pages'', and they say ``OK, =A3X per 1000 =20=

page impressions, or =A3Y per 1000 page impressions by people who are =20=

targeted'', where Y>X but Y<nX, where n is the number of people you =20
need to show the advert to in order to hit one who Phorm would target.

So I think the underlying Phorm gig is a more complex doubelclick =20
proposition: website owners sell their advertisers place holders, and =20=

those placeholders are filled by Phorm.  Alternatively, website owners =20=

sell the placeholders direct to Phorm, and Phorm then sell the space =20
to advertisers, but I don't think that can be the case: it wouldn't =20
provide a path to insert adverts for non-Phorm users.

ian