Critic from FIPR Supports Key Phorm Claim
April 6th, 2008 by Radha Burgess, Phorm Comms TeamRichard Clayton’s recent detailed report (download PDF) proves very helpful in dispelling confusion around our technology. He provides some clarity around the PII question on ukcrypto and supports our claim that the Phorm technology does not store any personally-identifiable information. He also says:
“Phorm argue, with some justification, that their system does not permit them to identify individuals and that they meet and exceed all necessary Data Protection regulations — producing a system that is superior to other advertising platforms that profile Internet users.”
We must thank Richard and Becky Hogge at the Open Rights Group for graciously accepting our invitation in the first place to come in and review the system. Becky helped guide the discussion at the meeting around key privacy issues and the wider digital landscape. She noted at the time that our points around funding the Internet, advertising’s role, the impact of free access on social exclusion were ‘worth repeating’. Becky also made the following observation on the new ICO statement yesterday on her blog:
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/04/04/phorm-analysis-out/
“The Information Commisioner has released an updated statement on Phorm. From the looks of things, they have declined FIPR’s invitation to consider the lawfulness of Phorm’s data processing under legislation other than the Data Protection Act (such as RIPA).”
This weekend saw us responding to a question about our system from Richard on his blog Light Blue Touchpaper. We hope he posts more as the dialogue has been really productive.
More Monday?
We eagerly await the EU Article 29 Working Party ruling on Monday and hope they’ll agree with our position that users’ IP addresses should be designated as personally-identifiable information. We also hope for further measures to be put in place to limit timeframes for data storage.
