EC starts Phorm legal case

As expected, the European Commission has started legal proceeding against the UK government over the targeted advertising system run by Phorm.

This comes after the EC received complaints about the secret trials carried out by Phorm on customers of BT without their consent.

BT, Phorm and the UK government all said that they were happy with the system as it conformed to European data laws, but this led the EC to write to the UK government over this matter and for clarification of the UK online privacy laws.

The EC wants to make sure that the government has procedures in place that protect the consumer by requiring users’ consent for systems like this to be used on their private data.

The UK needs to change the law to make sure that EC rules are applied.