Information society commissioner Viviane Reding said of the letter: "People's privacy and the integrity of their personal data in the digital world is not only an important matter: it is a fundamental right, protected by European law."

Source: EuObserver [ edited ]

by: LEIGH PHILLIPS

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission is worried that the UK is not taking online privacy rights seriously and has warned London that it will take the government to court if it does not crack down on an controversial advertising company that gathered information about internet users’ surfing habits in secret.

Behavioural advertising is one thing and snooping on websurfers is another, believes the commission. Some find it extremely disconcerting when Facebook or Amazon recommend a concert or a book or a CD that one of their algorithms has identified as a product they might like – and then it turns out that they would actually like it. Others find such services quite useful and do not care about any supposed threats to privacy. However, in both cases, users opt in to such targeted advertising.

In 2006 and 2007, Phorm, a US-based advertising software outfit, trialled a behavourial advertising service on the internet customers of service provider BT that it marketed to clients as a way to farm data about their shopping predilections. And it did so in secret without the users’ permission. At the time, Phorm claimed that deals it was making with major internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK would have given them access to the surfing habits of 70 percent of British households with broadband.

“As you browse we’re able to categorise all of your internet actions,” boasted Phorm executive Virasb Vahidi. “We actually can see the entire internet.”

BT and Phorm’s move provoked such an outcry – World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee attacked Phorm for its activities – that the advertising firm has had to abandon the UK marketplace. Despite complaints by MEPs to a range of UK government departments and the police, British authorities refused to act, believing the company to have won implied consent from users. In April of this year however, the EU executive warned that this constituted a breach of privacy rights and EU law and that if action was not taken to prevent such activity, Brussels would take the UK government to court.

This week, the commission wrote to the UK, saying that its response to their concerns was not satisfactory. The government now has two months to make a further response, after which, if Brussels remains unsatisfied, London can be taken to the European Court of Justice. Information society commissioner Viviane Reding said of the letter: “People’s privacy and the integrity of their personal data in the digital world is not only an important matter: it is a fundamental right, protected by European law.”

“I therefore call on the UK authorities to change their national laws to ensure that British citizens fully benefit from the safeguards set out in EU law concerning confidentiality of electronic communications.” Ms Reding believes that the government is in breach of the European E-Privacy Directive and the Data Protection Directive.

The question of whether behavioural advertising more widely, such as is used by online retailers or social networking sites, is a breach of privacy, is not within the purview of the commission however, as the EU laws concerned only relate very narrowly to the activities of network services and not websites themselves. The UK Home Office Home Office said in response to Brussels’ concerns: “We are firmly committed to protecting users’ privacy and data.

“We are considering the commission’s letter and will respond in due course.” Joe McNamee, of European Digital Rights, a Brussels-based online civil rights organisation, explained the difference between what social networking sites and online retailers commonly do and Phorm and BT’s activities.

“While there are concerns about the extent to which consumers know exactly what companies such as Facebook or Amazon are doing with their data, they at least have the option of choosing a different social networking service or bookseller. When it’s your ISP – in this case BT – I have no choice over this. I don’t even know it’s going on.

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