City of London Police looks into Phorm

[kona]

In the week that Phorm has admitted that its next trial of its advertising system is taking longer than expected to start, the City of London police has been meeting with BT to ask questions about the earlier more covert trials that took place.

The future of Phorm would appear to hinge very much on the success of the next BT trial and deals with Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse who have reconfirmed their commitment to the trial the Phorm service according to the Financial Times. The Register takes it's usual irreverent view on matters with a news item titled 'Phorm: Our business is fine honest'.

The current economic downturn may possibly do more harm to Phorm than the various ongoing investigations as to what the service really does, and what it can see of users data and what potential may exist for abuse. If the trials do go ahead and the product rolls out, it will be interesting to see the reaction of companies who want to advertise their products. Going on the level of public opposition to advertising your product via the Phorm agency there may be a reluctance to be associated with something people view as an invasion of privacy.