I thought that would get some attention. No posts for a while, but here is a good one (good articles, not so good news).
Articles found here and here.
BT, a British broadband provider, recently came out and wanted to let everyone know that they spied on 36,000 customers...without the customers knowledge of course. Basically, BT monitored every page visited to help tailor advertisements to them. Good or bad? BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! To cover up, BT originally told customers that a software virus was the culprit; then decided to tell the 36,000 users that they were used as a "small-scale technical trial." To put people at ease the executives assured that no personally identifiable information was recorded.
The monitoring system was created by Phorm and would scan and record information, such as keywords, from a website and add the information to a file about the person based on anonymous code numbers (maybe by IP addresses?) so that online ads could be better tailored to them. Phorm claims that this is a benefit...Is it acceptable to get a good deal on a laptop through these ads, because your ISP monitored your information? I am not on board with that theory and think I will keep using a proxy server to mask my IP address.
And if your gonna spy, don't leave viruses behind...duh. Customers were buying brand new computers and BT would still them it was a software virus....I hope they get reimbursed.
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