The future of Phorm web snooping will be considered by Virgin Media

A new and slightly less appealing feature of the Virgin Media network appears to have been endorsed as the largest ISP in the UK launched its new 50Mbps broadband services this week. The controversial use of the web snooping system, Phorm is something the company said it will pursue.

Neil Berkett, the CEO of Virgin made clear that Phorm was something the company had a strong interest in as it would allow the company to deliver advertising specifically targeting users based on their web browsing habits according to comments that seemed very carefully chosen during an interview with The Guardian.

The well know yet unwritten principle of personal control of information and user privacy would be breached by this highly controversial system because using it would require relating real accounts to websites that have been visited.

There are some users that are quite upset by the mere mention of Phorm, but many believe that the only reason Virgin are even talking about it is because of plans to move from Phorm trial to widespread rollout were recently announced by BT. Even though the last year has seen Phorm’s share plummet in value the recent news has helped it regain its momentum with a 40 percent increase in its share value.

The rising concern now in the marketplace is due to the fact that not only are Virgin and BT considering Phorm but TalkTalk, a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse is also trialing of the technology, which means that a large proportion of the broadband market in the UK will be covered if all three companies take it up.

In the Guardian interview Berkett said “There will be a point in time when we use the intelligence of our network for targeted advertising, will it be with Phorm, will it be with a modification of their product? I think it is a technique, but it is not something I want to rush into. We have got a fantastic brand and we want to take our customers with us,” he said.

Although many critics doubt the value of the statement, the option for customers to opt-out of having the technology track their every move online has always been stressed as a possibility, although in the UK this is currently a legal requirement. Back in the beginning Phorm traded as Delaware registered spyware or ‘adware’ company 121media, and since then has constantly tried to play down these origins.