BT's plans to test an
online advertising delivery service based on customers' use of
the internet is likely to go ahead "within weeks" despite a protest
at the telco's AGM yesterday.
BT Retail chief Gavin Patterson said he was thinking of
publishing the results of market research that he said showed 96%
of consumers were happy with the service.
Patterson said the advertisement serving service, BT Webwise,
would deliver only targeted adverts and protect customers against
trips to fraudulent websites. He said only customers who opted in
to the service would be affected.
BT Webwise uses AIM-listed
Phorm's behavioural profiling
system. The Information Commissioner's Office has cleared the
system on condition that users are asked clearly to
opt in or out of the service.
Protesters said BT had conducted at least two secret trials, in
2006 and 2007, that involved up to 350,000 customers, a figure BT
did not deny at the AGM.
They said Phorm would not confirm who opts in, nor who uses the
IP address to surf the internet. As a result, the system would
profile children who searched the web for homework material, they
said.
Phorm CEO Kent Ertugrul said the company had adopted
recommendations from people who had "scrutinised our technology and
suggested policies that will further our principles of openness and
privacy by design".
"We now exclude over a thousand webmail sites from being
processed rather than the largest 25," he said. This followed
feedback from an unprecedented
"town hall meeting" where Phorm publicly defended its
approach.