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UK Council for Child Internet Safety
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Phorm and Cabinet Office Involvement
To Cabinet Office by Paul Hancocks 20 October 2009
Contact between Downing Street Website Managers and Phorm re Petition and StopPhoulPlay website
Paul Hancocks made this Freedom of Information request to Cabinet Office
The request was partially successful.
From: Paul Hancocks
13 June 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
I understand your department is responsible for the Downing Street
Website, would you please confirm if this is the case?
Background to my FOI request:
The Downing Street Petition Website shows a petition created 3
March 2008 which called for "the Prime Minister to investigate the
Phorm technology and if found to breach UK or European privacy laws
then ban all ISP’s from adopting it’s use. Additionally the privacy
laws should be reviewed to cover any future technologies such as
Phorm"
FOI request, regarding claims published on Phorm website:
On 28th April the company "Phorm" published a website
(www.StopPhoulPlay.com) which referenced the above petition. It
stated this: "The website managers at 10 Downing Street recognised
their mistake in allowing a misleading petition to appear on their
site, and have since provided assurances to Phorm that they will
not permit this to happen again"
Request (part 1)
Please release all internal communications involving the Downing
Street Website team or the Cabinet Office and other areas,
concerning the content and claim made by Phorm on their website.
This may include emails, letters, telephone call or meeting
minutes/agenda/notes. The subject of the communication may be
concerning the website in general terms, the specific text quoted
above, or a 'Take Down' order requiring the company to remove the
text.
Request (part 2)
Please release a copy of the the communication from the Cabinet
Office, Downing Street Website team or third party acting on any of
the aforementioneds' behalf, in which assurances are given to Phorm
that your colleagues at the Number 10 Website "will not permit this
to happen again". This may include emails, letters, telephone calls
or meeting minutes/agenda/notes.
Not long after Phorm published the StopPhoulPlay website, the
claims quoted above were removed from the text and were replaced
with nothing.
I ask you to use the following timelines for the requests above:
24th April 2009 to 12th June 2009.
Thank you
Yours faithfully,
Paul Hancocks
From: Paul Hancocks
24 June 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
Earlier this month I wrote asking for information under the FOI
Act. Could you confirm that you have received this request?
I also asked if the Cabinet Office is responsible for the Downing
Street Website, would you mind confirming if this is the case?
Original communication available here:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...
Many thanks
Yours sincerely,
Paul Hancocks
Cabinet Office
26 June 2009
Dear Mr Hancocks,
Please see attached regarding your recent email.
Kind regards,
Yasmine Edwards
FOI Team
Cabinet Office
Tel: 020 7276 2473
The Cabinet Office computer systems may be monitored and communications
carried on them recorded, to secure the effective operation of the system
and for other lawful purposes.
show quoted sections
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
Cabinet Office
13 July 2009
Dear Mr Hancocks,
Please find attached response to your recent information request.
Kind regards,
Yasmine Edwards
FOI Team
Cabinet Office
Tel: 020 7276 2473
The Cabinet Office computer systems may be monitored and communications
carried on them recorded to secure the effective operation of the system
and for other lawful purposes.
show quoted sections
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
Paul Hancocks left an annotation (14 July 2009)
We can only assume that Phorm did not tell the truth on their www.StopPhoulPlay.com website
Who are Phorm? A business partner of BT Retail who provide internet connections for companies and residential customers.
BT have not ruled out implementing the system called BT Webwise which uses technology called Deep Packet Inspection to intercept and examine the communication between the internet/email user and the other parties they communicate with (i.e. Websites they visit - all the data)
Phorm used to be called 121Media and they developed software which when installed on home PCs was hard to remove (anti-virus companies developed routines to help consumers with this, e.g. Syamantec and F-Secure did this to help home PC users)
Carphone Warehouse Talk Talk has decided not to use Phorm's technology but BT and Virgin Media have not said the same.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service continues to review evidence of the BT trials of Phorm's Webwise in 2006 & 2007 (when they did not ask customers for permission and they did not have a legal warrant to intercept the private communication that they snooped upon)
Phorm created the StopPhoulPlay.com website to take a swipe at their critics, but on it they made claims that they had to remove shortly after the site launch. One of these claims was the reason for my request above.
I believe we have received "some of the information requested" in the reply. This being: There appears to be nobody in the UK Government who can provide any evidence whatsoever of any communication with Phorm about the Downing Street Petition which had over 21,000 signatures when it closed. And Phorm just quietly removed their claim (the one they said was "The Truth") from their website.
Who is to be trusted? They haven't ruled out using Phorm's system in the future... Would you trust BT? Would you trust Phorm? Do you want "Webwise"? Would you use "Webwise Discover"?
To use the words of Phorm: "We have decided to expose the smears and set out the true story, so that you can judge the facts for yourself."
So now you can judge for yourself!
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Paul Hancocks left an annotation (14 July 2009)
Who are Phorm? A business partner of BT Retail who provide internet connections for companies and residential customers.
BT have not ruled out implementing the system called BT Webwise which uses technology called Deep Packet Inspection to intercept and examine the communication between the internet/email user and the other parties they communicate with (i.e. Websites they visit - all the data)
Phorm used to be called 121Media and they developed software which when installed on home PCs was hard to remove (anti-virus companies developed routines to help consumers with this, e.g. Syamantec and F-Secure did this to help home PC users)
Carphone Warehouse Talk Talk has decided not to use Phorm's technology but BT and Virgin Media have not said the same.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service continues to review evidence of the BT trials of Phorm's Webwise in 2006 & 2007 (when they did not ask customers for permission and they did not have a legal warrant to intercept the private communication that they snooped upon)
Phorm created the StopPhoulPlay.com website to take a swipe at their critics, but on it they made claims that they had to remove shortly after the site launch. One of these claims was the reason for my request above.
I believe we have received "some of the information requested" in the reply. This being: There appears to be nobody in the UK Government who can provide any evidence whatsoever of any communication with Phorm about the Downing Street Petition which had over 21,000 signatures when it closed. And Phorm just quietly removed their claim (the one they said was "The Truth") from their website.
Who is to be trusted? They haven't ruled out using Phorm's system in the future... Would you trust BT? Would you trust Phorm? Do you want "Webwise"? Would you use "Webwise Discover"?
To use the words of Phorm: "We have decided to expose the smears and set out the true story, so that you can judge the facts for yourself."
So now you can judge for yourself!
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