Even if the UK Government is not going to stop Phorm spying on Internet users on privacy grounds, it looks like some of the biggest brands on the Web will.

The UK has structurally flawed data protection and privacy laws which allowed secret Internet snooping trials to take place. Now the European Union is stepping in to try and force the UK Government to take action.

The whole concept of behaviour-based targeting of online advertising is guaranteed to kick up a privacy stink wherever it appears. When that place is Google, though, the stink could quickly become something of a shit-storm.

Controversial behavioral advertising targeting outfit Phorm will start new trials of the Webwise system with BT Total Broadband customers starting tomorrow and lasting many weeks. iTWire explains how, and why, to opt out.

BT is off the hook over those secret spying trials it conducted without bothering to inform, or should that be inphorm, customers about them until it was caught red handed. It looks like a very bad day for privacy, and a very good one for the monitoring of online user activity without consent.

File under About Bloody Time. At long last UK police detectives have questioned BT about the secret Phorm trials it carried out without customer knowledge nor consent. Does this mean a formal investigation is to follow?

Controversial behavioral advertising targeting outfit Phorm, whose Webwise ad technology monitors user browsing habits to serve appropriate advertising messages, might have dragged the UK Government into a slugfest with the European Union over a possible breach of strict Euro data laws...