Techdirt reports that British Telecom has banned all discussion of Phorm on its forums and deleted all existing discussions.
“You may recall that BT was one of the bigger supporters of Phorm, the controversial clickstream tracking system that would allow ISPs like BT to insert their own behaviorally targeted ads into your web surfing. The company held extensive trials with the system, without letting users know that their clickstream data was being sold to advertisers in order to do more targeted advertising. Now that UK officials have decided that Phorm is legal, if clearly explained to consumers, BT has chosen a funny way to make sure there’s clarity around the system. Slashdot points out that BT has apparently banned discussion of Phorm on its forums and erased earlier forum discussions about the technology. How’s that for openness?
Is it really so hard to allow open discussion on such a topic? If BT believes that it’s reasonable to use the technology, then why not explain why clearly, responding to the critics? The only reason to erase these discussions is if BT knows that what’s it’s doing is highly questionable, and BT would rather not have to explain itself.”
BT has been heavily implicated in the Phorm scandal. It was one of the three ISPs first identified as colluding with Phorm.
At first glance this latest move just looks like crude censorship. If it is not I would be interested to read a justification from BT.
