Neil
I spotted that this morning. Immediately afterwards I noticed a delicious smell wafting around the house. It took me a couple of minutes to work out what it was, the smell of Goose being cooked.
For those of you who may be unaware of the full story, you can check out
The Register. Just search on Phorm. I had thought start a post on this issue but decided against for a few reasons
It has become quite political with a p and a P. With a small p because there is always going to be a long debate about the pros and cons of web advertising. With a capital P because it has implications regarding Data Protection Laws in the UK. They are much stricter over here than in the US.
Some of the language used in the comments pages is "Ripe" to say the least and so I did not want to contravene TS's rules on this. There have also been suggestions as to how to take actions against Phorm which would probably be illegal
It is, so far mainly a UK issue, although I believe that it "may" have been going on in the US for some time. Some companies have allegedly just changed some of their Terms and Conditions to allow this sort of activity.
On a personal level, my ISP is Virginmedia is one of the three who have signed up with Phorm. I decided days ago that unless the system was implemented on an opt-in basis and with none of my data going to the profiling server that I would change my provider. For me it would entail getting my 'phone line reconnected at a cost of £125 ($250) but that's a price I'm willing to pay to protect my privacy and my data stream.
Sandy