UK Police Stop Phorm Investigation, As They Don't See Any Criminal Behavior

from the civil,-however.., dept

Wed, Sep 24th 2008 8:44pm — Mike Masnick

While American competitor NebuAd may be on the verge of shutting down, it appears that Phorm, the controversial clickstream tracking, behavioral ad company that focused mainly on the UK market, may be dodging a series of bullets. First, the government said that clickstream tracking could be legal if the situation was clearly explained to customers and there was an obvious mechanism for opting out. Now, UK police are dropping their own investigation of earlier trials with BT, which many believed were illegal because they were done with no notice to consumers at all, and no way to opt-out. That would seem to go against the government's earlier statements, but the police are saying that there's no evidence that this is a criminal matter -- which would leave this open to civil lawsuits from individuals who were impacted by the trials.

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Filed Under: clickstream tracking, isps, legality, spyware, uk
Companies: phorm

8 Comments

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Steve Jetley, 24 Sep 2008 @ 10:17pm

Pants
Phorm is pants
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Free the OiNK 6, 25 Sep 2008 @ 1:04am

phucking phukers
Its the Police's job to INVESTIGATE. Its the Crime Prosection Services job to say IF a crime has been committed.... And it HAS. Puckkers.

Mass wire tapping without users knowledge OR consent.

U think u guys got it bad in the states ?

Welcome to the Red Glasnostic state of Not_so_Great Britain.

Side note - I hope this is far from over. It has to go civil now. I just hope there is someone who has the cash to pursue this.
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Enrico Suarve, 25 Sep 2008 @ 2:43am

How the hell do you take them to court?
"...leave this open to civil lawsuits from individuals who were impacted by the trials"

Except they don't know who they are, as they weren't consulted or informed which is the whole issue here

Sure, they might get absolutly bombarded with crap now that their information has been sold but they will never know which huge corporation with politicians in it's pockets did it

That's the whole point of the problem and why this should be prosecuted - to not do so sends a very clear message to companies that they can do what they want to the peons so long as they don't find out as individuals
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Phorm, 25 Sep 2008 @ 6:46pm

Re: Pants
"Phorm is pants"

No it's not
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Degriz, 26 Sep 2008 @ 8:34am

But..?
Why "The City of London Police" ?
Would this be like the square mile, bound to have been corporately penetrated type city of london police?
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Jim Zureich, 26 Sep 2008 @ 11:16am

Phorm
The big objection have toward Phorm and their henchmen is that their "service" should be a clear opt-in. Opt-outs buried in the TOS or EULA are inadequate
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DG, 26 Sep 2008 @ 12:31pm

There's two branches of law in the UK, Criminal and Civil. The police are there for criminal law only. Postal mail and telephone was protected because back then government had to worry about things like integrity and ethics, but now they have terrorists and paedophiles to worry us about instead.

I don't know if it's fully within their remit but in principle I think OFCOM should be having a good look.
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Sonal Ramchandra Pawar., 30 Sep 2008 @ 7:48am

froud with me
plz help me some customers is uk froud with internet they send a mail & saying you r a lottery winner & he is doing fake more customers.66600/- Indian Rupees i send mr lily frekson. But he not deliver my fund he is cheater he is froud plz do somethig help indians customers.
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