ISP data deal with former 'spyware' boss triggers privacy fears

Don't worry, 'that was a long time ago'

By Chris Williams

More than ten million customers of the UK's three largest ISPs will have their browsing habits sold to a company with roots in the murky world of spyware.

The deal has sparked fears over privacy, but today Phorm, the firm behind the new advertising system, strongly rejected such concerns.

BT, Virgin Media, and Carphone Warehouse have agreed to feed data on their subscribers' web activities to Phorm. Data will be fed into the Open Internet Exchange, Phorm's advertising network, where advertisers will pay to target interest groups. Frequent visits to the BBC's Top Gear site might result in being served up more car ads, for example.

In exchange, the ISP trio will get a cut of new revenue. Analysts estimate BT's cut will be £85m in 2010.

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