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

from the civil,-however.., dept

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.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

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


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Steve Jetley, 24 Sep 2008 @ 10:17pm

    Pants

    Phorm is pants

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.