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The Wikimedia Foundation has become the latest web giant to opt out of Phorm's user-tracking targeted-advertising system.
After Amazon did the same earlier this week, Wikimedia took the plunge on Thursday, "after some internal discussion on whether opting out of the Phorm user-profiling system in the UK would legitimize it".
The move means that users of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia properties cannot have their surfing tracked across those sites by Phorm/Webwise.
Unlike Amazon, which gave no explicit reason for its decision, Wikimedia outlined its motivation to the Phorm/Webwise folks: "...we consider the scanning and profiling of our visitors' behavior by a third party to be an infringement on their privacy".
Talkback
From a check of how their shares are trading I'd say Phorm is a few small steps from the bottom of a steady decline.
The Chairman's Statement alone on the website says it all.
'Company operating losses for the six month period ended 30 June 2008 were $25.6 million.'
And we all know just how much the economy has changed since then. Whatever the case, I think their model is way off the mark. In fact, it's miles away.
I could easily crush it with a paltry mill or 2.
TFD
What the hell did they expect? Far too open for such a project to succeed. I'd happily bet that if there is going to be any "snooping" done on peoples surfing habits, then it's going to be done in a covert/sneaky kind of way.
Roger, what a sad comment!
Ah yes a little hot under the collar with that one. Just seems bizzare not to expect a reaction when you shout from the roof tops that you have a business model based on intercepting surfing habits.
Then again maybe that's part of a plan to draw in free publicity. Sure as hell worked if it was, but sadly for them may backfire.
One of my concerns is that it may slow down the web. Is that possible?
Roger, Roger, Roger...slow down the web? You were on the right path with your 1st comment. In the end, profiling is the only way in which advertising will truly succeed online. It's just how company's like Phorm go about obtaining the info. How many people do you think read every web site Privacy statement? The collection of data, habits, models of personal use, whatever you want to call them, are really about predictive intelligence systems which I have mentioned on several other posts since joining ZDNet.
Simple premise: I know, what you know, therefore I can push what I believe you will want/ need etc.
TFD
And of course, what Phorm does isn't hugely different from Google's adsense, which hasn't raised as much of a stink.
Though, i'm not sure why not
Perhaps because there is an element of choice and Google is not physically located in our ISP scrutinising *all* of our traffic, Phorm does this whether we are opted in or opted out and could possibly be subverted quite easily to 'spy' on us all.
As to whether Phorm, adsense etc. do slow down the web, I have been wondering about that in particular reference to ZDNet's own site. It is without doubt one of the slowest sites to load and I'm curious to know if this has something to do with ZDNet's arrangements for advertising which are causing this slowness.
Ah Moley yes ZDNet has some swanky flash based ads and videos ready to go on load up.
The Firefox Add-on 'Ad Block Plus' (ABP) may cure such slowness, It did for me. It also gives you a more tidy visual experience on the web and you can right click some ads that you do see and set it to block them.
Whoops, can I say that on here?
The "element of choice" is only available to people who are aware of the opt out facility. I have an adsense account for my own website, yet don't know how to go about opting out of the service with my "web user" hat on.
Also while google can't see all of our web usage, there are an awful lot of websites with "ads by google" and each time we visit, google can - and do - track it.