How Phorm plans to tap your internet connection
Exclusive Internal BT documents obtained by The Register for the first time provide solid technical information on how data from millions of BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse customers will be pumped into a new advertising system.
It will not be "injecting" anything into your internet connection, as some commenters on our previous stories have suggested. Phorms Open Internet Exchange (OIX) is an online advertising broker service that, just like DoubleClick, matches advertisers with publishers. For both these parties, the closer the match the better: advertisers reach the people theyre most interested in, who are more likely to click on the ad, which means the publisher will get more money.
DoubleClick does matching using a cookie. Each time you visit a website running DoubleClick code, it can log that youve been there and build up a profile of what ads might be relevant to you. You can of course just kneecap the DoubleClicks system by refusing its cookies in the first place (at that level at least; it does targeting in the old school way too, by serving technology ads on The Register, for example).
Phorm is notably vague on its own website about how its system actually works, preferring to emphasise that the data it collects will be anonymised, and that it also offers anti-phishing warnings.
"With OIX and Webwise, consumers are in control: they can switch relevance off or on at any time at Webwise.com," it reassures. But are they just be switching off ad targeting, or can they stop their data being sent to Phorm?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/29/phorm_documents/
