Friday 04 April 2008

Secret tracking was not illegal, says BT

BT Broadband has said that it did nothing illegal in secretly tracking around 18,000 user accounts in 2006.

BT has admitted to using technology from 121Media, which became targeted advertising company Phorm, to monitor user account activity without the knowledge of surfers, in order to "evaluate the functional and technical performance of the platform".

The system collects traffic information, including the websites and keywords visited, in order to create more personalised adverts to be placed on a number of websites.

Emma Sanderson, head of value-added services at BT, told BBC Breakfast yesterday (April 3rd) that this activity, which took place in autumn 2006, was not illegal, reports The Register.

BT said in a statement: "The purpose of the test was to evaluate the functional and technical performance of the platform.

"It is important for BT to ensure that before any new technologies are deployed, they are robust and fit for purpose. No personally identifiable information was processed, stored or disclosed during this test."

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