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Phorm failed to mention 'illegal' trials to Home Office

Daniel Fleshbourne   on 18 June 2008 - 13:03 · 4 comments & 7691 views

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The Home Office held a private meeting with Phorm in August last year, but BT's interception and profiling partner did not disclose that it had completed an allegedly illegal trial of its technology on tens of thousands of unwitting broadband subscribers just weeks earlier.

Senior civil servant Andrew Knight revealed the meeting had taken place in a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request from a member of the public, passed to The Register. Today, the Home Office said it had no knowledge of the secret interceptions until we revealed the 2007 trial on 27 February and the 2006 trial on 1 April this year. BT reps were not present, Knight's note implied. The Home Office refused to disclose further details of who was present at the August 2007 meeting with Phorm, how it was arranged, or what was discussed, saying that the information remained the subject of an ongoing FOI inquiry.

View: The full story @ The Reg

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 4 additional comments
#1 thealexweb on 18 Jun 2008 - 16:05
I can't see Phorm ever taking off, it's already been outlawed in the EU. It contradicts some European law.
#2 OldBear on 18 Jun 2008 - 16:35
Glad to see this story finally get on the Front page; well done Daniel.

I've never really understood why BT, Talk Talk and Virgin would want to get in bed with a man who was responsible for one of the worst rootkits in history (Apropos).

Members who don't know about who BT are wanting to do business with may want to read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm
#3 +mrbester on 19 Jun 2008 - 11:56
The Home Office refused to disclose further details ..., saying that the information remained the subject of an ongoing FOI inquiry.

In other words, they're trying to find some excuse for not disclosing details because they know what they did was illegal and are hoping to shroud the whole thing in secrecy (such as claim it was for "security reasons" ) to encourage people to not bother their little heads with such things as gross invasion of privacy.
#4 protractor on 19 Jun 2008 - 18:13
This is all a big con, they want to trick people into signing up for "protection" when all they get is profiled.

Just tell your non-tech friends to visit Do Not trust Webwise, it's a simple warning about all this rubbish.

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