BT Initiates Phorm Trial Number 3
BT wants thousands of its broadband customers to voluntarily participate in a third trial of Phorm’s advertising targeting system starting tomorrow, the two companies announced today.
The trial was supposed to start back in March, but was delayed after technical issues and legal problems. The plans are to monitor 10,000 residential broadband lines in real time.
Phorm released this statement earlier this morning:
“Phorm, the advertising technology company, today announces that its ISP partner, BT, will tomorrow commence its trial of Phorm’s platform, branded “BT Webwise”.
“BT customers are being invited to take part in the trial, which will take place over a number of weeks. Following successful completion of this trial and an appropriate period of analysis and planning, it is currently expected that Phorm’s platform will be rolled out across BT’s network.”
BT’s “Webwise” page sheds a little more light, saying that customers will be asked for permission to wiretap into their line. They say: “As a BT Total Broadband customer, you can try an exciting new service called BT Webwise.”
An “invitation page” will appear on the customers screen initially.
BT continues: “BT Webwise uses a cookie stored on trial customers’ computers to remember their preference. If the cookie is deleted at any point, the invitation page will be displayed again.”
BT has said previously that Phorm’s much-criticised cookie-based opt-out method would be replaced with a new method to satisfy those customers who don’t want their traffic to come into contact with Webwise-related equipment.
Cookies are still involved in the trials however. BT’s FAQ says “to remain opted-out, you can set all your browsers to block cookies from the domain webwise.net”. BT chief press officer Adam Liversage confirmed that opted-out traffic will pass through the system during the trial, but said it “will not be mirrored or profiled”.
Liversage added that BT is still working on a network-level-opt-out, but that it will not be offered during the trial.
This third trial will be the first time BT and Phorm have gauged the effect their behavioural targeting system has on ad click rates. The first trial did not seek to measure whether the technology improved response, and in the second trial no ads were served. The European Commission is currently considering action over the secret tests, which were conducted in 2006 and 2007 without customer consent.
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