Phrom Advertising network illegal in UK

[gaydemon]

Read an interesting article on BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7301379.stm) on a online advertising company called Phorm that privacy groups are calling for to be made illegal in the UK.

Phorm (http://www.phorm.com/user_privacy/) in short checks what websites you have been visiting and tailors adverts / banners to your taste of sites and interests. A bit like Amazon does with thier books and dvds.

Its a brillian system.. just think if that could have been made for Porn advertising.. matching up exactly to what users are into..

I do wonder if this means Amazon could be made or seen as illegal since they do something similiar (although using their own information they hold about clients).

[gaydemon_jr]

Surely it's a great thing to have things tailored and customised to a user's habits. If I am thinking right, isn't that the whole concept of Web 2.0? Interaction, customised this and that etc? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

[MrJD]

the question is does phorm do it with the users permission and what else does it do with the information gathered? I mean... Zango is a great idea... but really fucked up when you really look at it