Phorm and Fraud Act?

[Nicholas Bohm]

Roland Perry wrote:
> In article <47E7BC81.1070200@ernest.net>, Nicholas Bohm 
> <nbohm@ernest.net> writes
>>>  "If a website could spoof who it is, it could get your browser to 
>>> reveal  the login details for other websites". "Which I'm sure you 
>>> can see would  be a BAD THING".
>>
>> I don't think a prosecutor would stir an inch on the basis that 
>> something was a misrepresentation unless he or she could see how 
>> ordinary computer users, uninstructed by the sort of teaching you 
>> outline, were being misled.  That's what I was trying to convey when I 
>> said "obvious":  as apparent to native common sense as the example of 
>> the 50p coin.  Not dependent on using an add-in and watching for 
>> phenomena of whose existence most users are quite unaware, or having 
>> someone have to explain to them how they were being deceived.
> 
> This makes me profoundly depressed about the possibility that any 
> hi-tech law can be used in practice. Presumably you also think that any 
> prosecution for Interception, based on the sort of precise dissection of 
> the RIPA wording that's been evident on this list the last few weeks, 
> would also fail at that same hurdle?

No, non sequitur, because whether something is an interception doesn't 
depend on construing as a misrepresentation (and persuading a jury 
about) something that almost no member of the non-geek public would 
recognise as a representation at all.

There must of course be some doubt whether the DPP would consent to a 
prosecution of something done in the course of targeted advertising, 
given the enthusiasm some at the Home Office seem to feel about this 
wonderful service.  But then that's why we want to get at the issue 
through the ICO and the DPA, where there may be some scepticism about 
the delights of that brave new world.

Nicholas
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