Bad Phorm: Detectives question BT over secret trials

Davey Winder
Friday, 05 September 2008 21:02

IT Industry - Market

That will depend upon how much evidence there is to suggest that residents, or workers, within the London financial district which it polices, were impacted by the trials.

It will also, of course, come down to how much money any investigation would cost, and if the outcome were likely to be deemed in the public interest.

Talking of monetary cost, the whole affair seems to be costing Phorm itself dearly. Earlier this week its share price slumped to a low of UKP £5.80 compared to a high earlier in the year of £35.04

This was put down as being a response to the possibility of a third BT trial being cancelled, together with US newspaper reports doubting if it will ever get the go ahead to do business in the US.

BT, meanwhile, is keeping very quiet about the affair at present, and we are just left with the existing comments from it which point to the legal advice taken before the trials that concluded it was perfectly legal.

Privacy campaigners, including the Foundation for Information Policy Research, maintain the trials broke the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

Indeed, it has been argued that legality under RIPA could only be assured if consent was obtained before testing. That did not happen.

Book 'em Danno!