ICO to monitor latest BT Phorm trial

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will monitor an upcoming BT trial of a targeted online advertising system to gauge internet users' reaction to the service.

Phorm, the developers of the Webwise system which delivers targeted advertising based on the websites people visit, claims it is totally anonymous and holds no personally identifiable information on web users.

Webwise has alarmed privacy experts. After it emerged that BT had run trials in 2006 and 2007 of an earlier version of Phorm’s technology, privacy expert Richard Clayton said it was a breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000. This regulation makes it an offence to intercept internet traffic without consent or a warrant.

However the ICO will keep an eye on the current BT trial and said its investigation into the technology and discussions with Phorm are still ongoing so it had yet to come to a conclusion.

"We believe that it is only by allowing their technology to be subject to detailed scrutiny by independent technical experts that they will be able to prove their assertions regarding privacy," said an ICO spokesman.

The latest BT trial will involve around 10,000 broadband users and will begin later this month.

“This is an opt-in trial and people will be invited to join. This will be made clear to them,” a BT representative said.

Phorm is also negotiating deals with two other internet service providers Virgin Media and Talktalk. But both companies said that they had not trialled the technology yet. Virgin said it could be months before it decides whether to implement Webwise.