Phorm
On the heels of the departure of its four U.S. board members, controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm faces yet more upheaval. The company, which has consistently said it intends to enter the U.S. market, is now losing its U.K. chief executive, Hugh Drayton, as well as U.K. chief financial officer Lynne Millar.
The U.K. Internet service provider BT Group said Monday it has completed its most recent test of controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm's platform, Webwise, and expects to roll out the system throughout the network. BT and Phorm refused to answer questions about whether they intend to seek subscribers' explicit consent before deploying the platform, or whether Webwise will automatically monitor Web activity and serve targeted ads unless subscribers opt out.
In a shakeup for controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm, four board members are exiting due to disagreements with CEO Kent Ertugrul about the company's direction. The departing board members are Stephen Heyer, former Coca-Cola executive; David Dormon, chairman of Motorola; Christopher Lawrence, an executive with investment banking firm Rothschild; and Virsasb Vahidi, who also served as chief operating officer.
Behavioral targeting company Phorm seems to be suffering from a privacy-related backlash in the U.K.This week, Neil Berkett, CEO of Internet service provider Virgin Media, told investors in New York that the company wasn't likely to work with Phorm any time soon. "Our next initiative probably won't be with the Phorms of the world," he said, according to reports.
European Union privacy officials are continuing to keep up the pressure on controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm. In the latest development, the European Commission's Information, Society and Media division, headed by Viviane Reding, last week sent a second letter questioning U.K. authorities about Phorm.
Behavioral targeting company Phorm, which just launched another test of its controversial Webwise platform in the U.K., still plans to enter other countries, including the U.S., the company reiterated in a new stock filing.
Controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm will launch another test of its platform Tuesday with U.K. Internet service provider BT Group. Unlike the case in previous trials, BT will only deploy the platform, "Webwise," with subscribers who have affirmatively agreed to receive targeted ads. For the initiative, BT intends to intercept 10,000 users with a Web page asking whether they wish to sign up for Webwise, which it touts as offering "more relevant" ads.
In the U.S., behavioral targeting company NebuAd was forced to retreat from a plan to purchase information about people's online activity from ISPs and then serve ads based on subscribers' Web histories. But in the U.K., authorities have not only cleared ISP-based behavioral targeting company Phorm, but appear to be rooting for it.
