Well I had a surprise this afternoon, when I logged in to make a new entry, I had an entry awaiting moderation which you can find under web creator attacks Phorm. One of Phorm’s three PR firms trying to reduce the damage to the SPYWARE company.
I will respond to the points he makes (my replies in red)
When he states he’s from the phormcomms team, he probably means he’s from the PR firm Citigate Drewe Rogerson.
Firstly, Webwise is not malware. Users are continually given the choice to opt out and the very first thing you will see when you go online after the technology has been deployed is a full-page notice and at that point you can decide to opt out. You will see banner ads saying that Webwise is on. So if you don’t want it, you will be able to click on these ads and switch them off.
Webwise is created by Phorm, a company who were previously called 121 media and responsible for some pretty nasty rootkits/adware.
Users will be able to opt-out of Phorm’s service. However, according to a spokesman for Phorm, the way the opt-out works means the contents of the websites you visit will still be mirrored to its system.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/05/bt_phorm_trial/
Want to opt in to Phorm? Welcome to the world of complicit behaviour. If you opt in you risk the chance of committing a criminal offence yourself for initiating a communication which you know is going to be subjected to interception. Your ISP will be making you a criminal.
Secondly it’s not illegal - we don’t agree with FIPR. They offer one view on a piece of the law that is untested. All of the legal advice we’ve taken and conversations we’ve had with various experts on DPA and RIPA support our position that our system complies with all the appropriate laws.
You’re right Phorm is not illegal under RIPA if you ignore s2 and s3 of the legislation; which conveniently happen to be the pertinent sections of the legislation with regards to protecting the HUMAN RIGHTS of the public with regards the right to privacy in our private lives and communications.
However, since we have been told time and time again that IGNORANCE of the law is no excuse in the eyes of the courts, if they continue to IGNORE s2 and s3 we will jump on their every move and push harder and harder for criminal charges to be brought against Phorm and the Agent ISPs.
Rest assured, the secret trials by BT last June were criminal under RIPA and any deployment of Phorm -anywhere- in the UK would be equally criminal for as long as Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 exists in it’s current form.
Lastly, Sir Tim Berners Lee is not familiar with the Phorm system, so he did not know that his example is impossible with our system (in the BBC story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7299875.stm). There is no match to ‘sensitive’ areas such as medical conditions, no record of what sites users have visited, and no data of any kind is passed by the system to a third party (in his example to insurers).
Your claim that Sir Tim’s example was impossible, from Phorm’s own patent it’s perfectly possible, we only have Phorms word that they won’t, and frankly with their history in the malware business I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. And in a piece about Phorm in the New York times one of Phorms very own members of staff says the following.
“The company, called Phorm, has created a tool that can track every single online action of a given consumer, based on data from that person’s Internet service provider. The trick for Phorm is to gain access to that data, and it is trying to negotiate deals with telephone and cable companies, like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, that provide broadband service to millions.
Phorm’s pitch to these companies is that its software can give them a new stream of revenue from advertising. Using Phorm’s comprehensive views of individuals, the companies can help advertisers show different ads to people based on their interests.
“As you browse, we’re able to categorize all of your Internet actions,” said Virasb Vahidi, the chief operating officer of Phorm. “We actually can see the entire Internet.”
Source: NYTIMES
We look forward to speaking to Tim Berners Lee to explain how our technology is a ground breaking advance in delivering targeted ads while protecting privacy online and consumer choice, as we have with other experts.
As Sir Tim has stated I DON’T want targeted adds, the data I send between MY computer via my ISP is MINE and is NOT FOR SALE.
I’ve deleted the links from his post, as I don’t want any links to spyware companies on my Blog. I’d like to protect my friends and their private information.
My thanks must go to Alexander Hanff for his help with this reply 
