Wouldn’t you prefer to be told to buy things you were actually interested in? I would, but not everyone feels the same way. Especially when we stop and think about how companies know what we want to buy. By recording our online behaviour, is our privacy being invaded too much? And is it against our will?
It seems like the level of invasion might be down to your choice of ISP. According to a recent article BT, Virgin and Talktalk have recently signed a deal that hands any unencrypted information over to Phorm, which could include webmail, usernames and passwords. Opting out does not seem to be an option. But the loud outcries might be coming from the same people that decried Google’s mail service when it first started searching through our messages in order to place relevant adverts next door. I think it comes down to choice. Choose your ISP, choose your webmail provider, be careful where you to leave your digital footprints in general.
Like I said above, I don’t mind being given ads I might be interested in. perhaps the individuals who are outraged by this invasion of privacy are those who actually have something to hide. For the angelic browsers amongst us, not a problem.
Tags: advertising, behaviour, digital, internet, marketing, online, privacy
March 5, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Hi, I’m from the tech team at phorm. You make a great point about the trade off people often feel they have to make between getting a personalised service on the one hand and giving up personal data on the other. But with innovation and technology we’ve created something that resolves that tension. Our system gives you advertising that’s relevant to your interests without storing details on your browsing behaviour. Furthermore, we don’t store any personally identifiable information, IP addresses or browsing histories. So we can’t know who you are or where you’ve browsed. And you’re in control – you can choose to switch the service off or on at any time. Do drop me a line if you’d like more information or have any questions.
Best wishes
Tech Team
March 6, 2008 at 9:15 am
So there we have it. Firm reassurance from the horses mouth that this is not 1984 for the 21st century. It’s good to get some clarity with regards to this. I have a feeling, however, that this discussion will run and run. We’re actually having a behavioural roundtable at the show on the 30th April in our Keynote theatre which is going to include some leading players (vendors and client side) including a senior representative from News International. I have a feeling it will be one of those times where there had better be a long enough Q&A session at the end…
March 6, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Kent Ertugrul - Phorm CEO online interview
There’s been quite a lot of interest and discussion following the announcement of the Open Internet Exchange (OIX) and Webwise from Phorm. The company’s CEO, Kent Ertugrul will be available to answer your questions in a live web chat via the Webwise site at http://www.webwise.com/chat on 6 March 2008.
Between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm tonight, Kent will cover recent announcements from Phorm and give you a chance to ask the founder exactly how Phorm is revolutionising the Internet through more effective anti-fraud technology, more relevant advertising and a new gold standard in privacy. For further information, please visit http://www.webwise.com or http://www.phorm.com.
April 17, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Blog Hopper…
Hi There. I’m blog hopping….
April 22, 2008 at 3:49 pm
[...] inviting debate with people not happy about a previous story mentioned in this very blog way back here . It looks like the general public aren’t too happy with being advertised products that they might [...]
June 12, 2008 at 10:02 am
Jessie…
. Many blogs have stopped using trackbacks because dealing with spam became too burdensome. This is similar to comment spam but avoids…