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Your browsing history being sold.... Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk

VRStu
in The Technology Shed

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:mad: - guess I'll have to switch ISPs then :(

:eek: :eek:

Aren't there laws against this sort of thing?? So glad I'm with none of these companies...

wouldn't hold my breath that other ISP's are much different

:eek: :eek:

Aren't there laws against this sort of thing?? So glad I'm with none of these companies...

Do you realise how much infrastructure you require to collect that sort of data.

Some serious cash has been spent to enable them to do that, so they are probably getting a high high price for it too.

As for laws against it, only if you are identifiable by it IIRC.

If they strip off the IP and just say 500'000 of our customers visited this site, most at this time, and on average the amounts downloaded were x, y and z then IIRC it's legal.

EDIT: Looking at what they are doing, I think that's at best dubious and would think the courts might pull that "venture" to pieces if anyone takes them for it.

  • Author

I'd say if the money offered is good enough they'll all be at it soon.

As for laws against it, only if you are identifiable by it IIRC.

It's for targeted advertising so you must be identifiable and not just through your IP. They are dynamic for most users.

The company is based in London which will make life easier for them. They'll have trouble exporting the data out of the EU.

If it works as a profit maker then they will all do it. Not much you can do other then to use an anonymising proxy like Tor.

They could get screwed by masses of Subject Access requests for the data they hold. If 10000 customers did that it might cost them their profit.

  • Author
They could get screwed by masses of Subject Access requests for the data they hold. If 10000 customers did that it might cost them their profit.

That sounds like a good plan.

They could get screwed by masses of Subject Access requests for the data they hold. If 10000 customers did that it might cost them their profit.

Although if it's anything like the DPA access then they're allowed to charge a nominal admin fee, so it might actually make it even more lucrative for them :(

Chris

The fee is £10.

Which in will come no where near to cover their costs in terms of man-hours.

They won't have a dedicated team on this so people have to move from other functions to do it.

after receiving a request they have 40 days to answer it. Easy with a couple not so easy with 10k.

Tesco probably has a lot more data on everyone with a clubcard.

why do poeple want to know i spend all my time slowly going blind lol :rofl:

Hey if they all buy the hardware to do this then at least I'll be getting a pay rise :)

why do poeple want to know i spend all my time slowly going blind lol :rofl:

So they can send you adverts for specsavers and vouchers for veet for the palms of your hands.

It's for targeted advertising so you must be identifiable and not just through your IP. They are dynamic for most users.

I find this quite concerning, of course you are identifiable. There was a big hoo-ha recently on the Helping To Find Madeleine website, to join their forum, members had to wait for an activation email, if they decided you were not of their ilk (namely an anti) they then published on their website your email address, your full name, home address, including town and postcode :eek: How had they got this information? Traced the computer??? They have even threatened some people with physical violence. But's that the cult of the pro-Mccans and shows the lengths they will go to.

I have ad blockers and spyware detectors on my computer and rarely get any adverts, but I am concerned about people knowing which sites I have been on, some things are private and personal (but not rude :rofl:)

Dynamic IP - theoretically yes, in practise you'll have the same IP for months..

My cablemodem has had the same IP address for 2 years.

why do poeple want to know i spend all my time slowly going blind lol :rofl:
So they can send you adverts for specsavers and vouchers for veet for the palms of your hands.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: LMFAO!

Its nothing new really... Google have been doing it for years with Adwords etc

Its not as if its an invasion of privacy, its just moving the "layer" at which data is collected, i think they will all have trouble wrenching ad-space away from the all powerful google.

The ISP's have to pay for this web 2.0 stuff somehow. i read an article about iplayer and its effect on UK isps.

networks;dcove=d;sz=336x280;tile=3;ord=5VnQhNRk6jgAABPvvQkAAACK?

In only its first month of service, iPlayer pushed up ISP costs by 200 per cent, from 6.1p per user to 18.3p per user. This obliges ISPs who are simply BT resellers - and most are - to order more pipes; yet there's no extra income. Remember that this is the low-bandwidth version of iPlayer, not the high resolution, high traffic P2P service, which uses much more bandwidth. And of course, it's early days - we're at the beginning of the iPlayer adoption curve. January's figures involve just 19 minutes of TV per viewer for the month.

In other words, viewing iPlayer today costs your ISP a penny a minute - but the ISP isn't gaining any additional revenue from you. Nor is it being subsidised by the content provider, the BBC, to carry those streams.

Im with BT, im not fussed, i have adblock and noscript running :thumbup:

I'm with Virgin Media............

I bet me and the wife will start getting ads delivered for childrens swings and slides then if our internet activity is anything to go by.............

I'll leave that to your imagination guys......

Steve

Might be worth reading this - if the thing works the way they say it does then it's just an appliance which sits at the ISP - Phorm don't sit in some hardened bunker collecting data on my taste in porn...

Phorm launches data pimping fight back | The Register

why do poeple want to know i spend all my time slowly going blind lol :rofl:

:rofl:

:thumbup:

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