ICO no protection for consumers

Today we have learnt that the Information Commissioners Office is like every other regulatory body, and is a spineless collection of civil servants who have no interest in protecting the consumer, but would rather endorse the illegal activity of large corporations.

A post over on the monster thread on Cable Forum, from someone who was deeply affected by the secret BT/Phorm trials in 2007 has had a reply from the spineless ICO saying they’re not going to bother taking any action despite the fact they agree the trials broke the law, namely the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 under Regulation 6

You can find the post here. Like many other regulatory bodies, they have no teeth, and often won’t act on customers genuine complaints about the activities of big business.

I’m sure it’s not the last we’ll here of this issue, and the whole thing stinks of corruption. It comes to something when we get the offer of more protection from the EU than our own government, yet we often hear them screaming that Brussels has too much control already, maybe what they really fear is the general public in this country having adequate levels of protection.

Foot op… take 2

Just when you thought it was safe…  Foot Op 2 .. coming July 2008

I’ve had a letter this morning informing me that the op on my foot to correct the problems after the last one which was done in October will take place in July, so around a month to go and hopefully this time it will be done the same way as when my other foot was done a few years ago where the forefoot was shortened, as I’ve had no problems at all with it.

I’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Phorm protest planned at BT AGM

Opponents of the Phorm Webwise spyware system are planning to hold a protest outside BT’s Annual General Meeting in London on the 16th July. The ongoing campaign wants BT to scrap plans to intercept its broadband customers’ web browsing and searches and profile them for targeted advertising. They will gather at the Barbican to make their case to shareholders and the public.

The Register has already been made aware of the event and have an article on the issue here

Also if you’re a Digg member head over to this article and please Digg it.

Nintendo Channel Privacy Options

With all the debate about Phorm and it’s spyware plans, I must say I was refreshed by the new Nintendo Channel, which became available to EU Wii owners today. After downloading I was asked a number of questions, and given full information on what those choices meant. I had the ability to opt in or out of both sections.

You can find detailed information on the ability to opt in or out of receiving messages from both Nintendo and 3rd parties to your Wii messageboard on the official Ninendo Channel Customer Service page

There is also detailed information on what information you share with Nintendo (which you can also opt out of) when sending details to the Nintendo Channel

Well done Nintendo, while you’re still competing for sales, you don’t stoop to the levels of some organisations to do so.

Nintendo Channel launches in UK tomorrow

The new Nintendo Channel will hit UK Wii consoles tomorrow, the channel gives you an interactive guide to what’s new in the world of Nintendo gaming. Having previously launched in Japan during November of 2007 and in the US of May 2008, the UK finally get the channel on 30th May 2008.

It will allow you to download trailers and videos of upcoming games, get info on Nintendo titles and will also have downloadable demos of DS games to upload to your DS.

To get it on your Wii you’ll need to go to the the Wii Shop and download it for free. You can read more about the Nintendo Channel on the official website here.

Handy font display tool for LCD monitors

With my new monitor arriving this morning I must say I’m blown away with the image quality over my old 17″ screen. There’s such a huge difference not only with general windows apps (2 pages side by side now in office with the widescreen) but videos and WoW are looking amazing.

Jayne told me of a handy Microsoft app for Windows XP and Vista called ClearType which gives you improved font display quality over the standard font smoothing options in XP.  The tool improves readability on LCD displays using a digital interface. You can read more about the app on Microsoft’s ClearType information page

You can use the online tuner to turn on and tune the XP ClearType settings or you can download the Windows XP PowerToy version .

I’m told the online tuner doesn’t work with Vista.

Old PC gets new lease of life

Having built my new PC I’m left with a few components, as always there’s always someone upgrading, so my old Abit KV7 motherboard and AMD socket A 3200 CPU is off to a new home to replace an even older system. My old Chieftec Dragon case is also surplus to requirement and I’m left with a perfectly adequate Nvidia 6600 AGP geforce card, 1 GB of crucial RAM an IDE HDD and Pioneer 109 DVD-writer. While I was surfing around the net I came across a motherboard that would use all of my old components, while allowing me to put a reasonably fast cpu with it.

The board in question is an Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Rev2 (Socket 775), which has both an AGP slot as well as a PCI Express socket, add to this a Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 CPU and for under £100 i’ve got an ideal 2nd machine/media server.

I’ve read some good reviews of the Asrock board, and while I usually exclusively use Abit boards thanks largely to the totally troublefree service all of my Abit boards have given me over the years, for the budget machine I’m willing to pop one of these boards in. I might go really mad and put Vista on it! (hey stop laughing)

Once I get the bits and I’ve built the wee beastie I’ll let you know how it performs.

Comedy Classics #6: The Mother in Law

EU Commissioner’s response to Phorm

Last month I emailed Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media with my concerns regarding the Intra ISP Spyware system Phorm Webwise. I have just had a reply from Commissioner Reding’s department, and it confirms what we’ve been saying all along, that Phorm is illegal under EU law. A number of other anti Phorm campaigners have had the same reply after expressing their concerns.

The Comission is aware of the activities of the company Phorm in the UK, concerning the analysis of internet traffic for advertising purposes, the agreement between Phorm and major internet service providers in the UK and the concerns that have been raised about the effects on privacy of these activities. Privacy and the protection of personal data are fundamental rights of the citizens of the EU. They are enshrined in articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and also protected by the European Convention on Human Rights and the related instruments of the Council fo Europe, to which all EU Member States are signatories.

The general principles of personal data are defined in Directive 95/46/EC and complemented and particularised for electronic communications by Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications (ePrivacy Directive). The ePrivacy Directive obliges Member States to ensure the confidentiality of communications and related traffic data through national legislation. In particular, they shall prhobit listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communication and the related traffic data by persons other than the users without their consent, which must be freely given, specific and informed indication of the user’s wishes. The data concerned in this particular matter i.e. the content of search queries, constitute communication within the meaning of this Directive and the URLs used in the packets constitute traffic data. This data should therefore be protected appropriately.

The responsibility for the enforcement of national legislation transposing EU Directives is with the competent national authorities. The ICO, the UK data protection authority, has issued several statements concerning Phorm. According to press information, the ICO is also investigating in at least one case, where a formal complaint has been made concerning alleged trials of Phorm technology by BT in 2007.
The Commission services will continue to follow this case and possible similar developments and take appropriate action, should the need arise. The Comission confirms its commitment to the protection of privacy and security of electronic communications as one of its top priorities.

I will be sending a copy of this to my MP, and several of the other organisations I’ve been in touch with regarding Phorm.

Wretched Devourer’s day at the seaside