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Sir John Luke

Listed below are comments made by Sir John Luke between Tuesday, 26th May 2009 and Thursday, 28th May 2009.

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BBC Online and behavioural targeting 6:05pm on 28 May 2009 @BTC

Of course, if you believe Phorm, all these people who wrote to the EU, the 21,000+ who signed the Downing Street petition, the ones who have written to MPs, taken part in numerous Internet polls, etc are actually all the same 6 people using different pseudonyms (and presumably different e-mail addresses, IP addresses, etc in order to multi-post/vote).
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 5:15pm on 27 May 2009 POO #129

Like I said, that is what the StopPhaulPlay site was set up for. THIS blog is to discuss whether or not the BBC should opt out of Phorm.

I think most people are au fait by now with these diversionary tactics.
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 4:55pm on 27 May 2009 Is it in order for this blog to be used to conduct a personal vendetta against a named individual?

I thought that was what the stopphaulplay site was set up for.
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 4:51pm on 27 May 2009 Is it in order for this blog to be used to conduct a personal vendetta against a named individual?
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 08:06am on 27 May 2009 I don't understand why the BBC need to wait for the results of the EU action. Regardless of the legality or otherwise of Phorm, the issue is whether it is a) in conformance with their charter and b) commercially sensible for the BBC to allow their content to be used for commercial purposes, particularly when they (quite rightly) do not allow the same privilege (wrt UK users) to their contractual partner (Audience Science).
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 10:53pm on 26 May 2009 It is unfortunate that attempts have been made to hijack this blog for irrelevant personal attacks. Hopefully those who have to resort to regurgitating the smears on the StopPhaulPlay web site will not be allowed to divert attention from the discussion which this blog is intended to provoke.
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 7:56pm on 26 May 2009 @nevali

not too sure about that. Phorm actually make a full copy ('mirror') of the website page (as a semantic point, I'm not sure whether this is done by Phorm-owned equipment, or equipment 'gifted' by them to the ISP in order to avoid possible liability). It is this unauthorised copy (made for commercial gain) which is then analysed for keywords.

Possibly getting a bit off-topic though. Whilst the legality of Phorm is certainly open to question on many fronts, this blog is more concerned about whether the BBC should opt out, even IF the technology is eventually found to be legal or is retrospectively made legal.
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 7:13pm on 26 May 2009 Incidentally, do we actually know whether opting out websites from BT Webwise will also opt them out from other implementations of Phorm technology, in particular overseas implementations such as QookSmartWeb?
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 6:47pm on 26 May 2009 Oh, and BT's view on the validity of web-site copyright notices

"Again, we do not consider that an express consent is required from website owners for copyright purposes. We consider that the Webwise mirroring process is generally covered by an implied licence and that putting a notice on a website is not sufficient to overturn that implied licence. In order to do so, it would be necessary for website owners to notify BT to tell them specifically that there is no consent and to identify the website or websites to which the notice applies."
Interesting Stuff 2009-05-22: BBC & Phorm FOI Request 6:25pm on 26 May 2009 On the subject of consent, BT have themselves acknowledged that the consent of both parties is required. Their argument was laid out as below:-

"It is our position that there is no offence committed under Section 1 of RIPA because any interceptions carried out under the Webwise process are made with "lawful authority". In circumstances where a customer has opted-in to the service, that customer has consented to interception. We also consider that as a consequence of the manner in which the Internet operates, there is a general presumption that website owners have also consented. That presumption may be overturned in certain circumstances and we believe that Webwise takes that into account (see description of privacy features above). In addition, we have a published mechanism that allows website owners to expressly request that their websites are not profiled. Accordingly, where a website owner chooses not to utilise any of these features, we consider that we have reasonable grounds to believe that he has consented to interception."

In other words, they regard web site T&Cs as worthless. Unless a web site 'opts out', either by using ROBOTS.TXT to deny google (they do not provide any means of using ROBOTS.TXT to explicitly deny Phorm), or via Phorm's un-proven exclusion mechanism, BT at least assume the web-site permits its use for commercial purposes.

Unless the BBC is prepared to challenge this assumption in the courts, and assuming they do not want to ban search engines, their ONLY option is to request that Phorm opt them out.

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