European Commission probes UK government over Phorm

UK-- The European Commission has written to the UK government to grill it over the controversial Phorm ad targeting software and is demanding answers within a month.

Martin Selmayr, the European Commission's information, society and media spokesman, told Research a letter had been sent asking “detailed questions on how the UK authorities have protected the privacy of UK citizens with regard to Phorm in the past, and how they intend to do so in the future”.

This is the second time the Commission has written to the UK's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) about Phorm. A spokesman said: “The European Commission takes citizens' data privacy very seriously and is therefore asking the UK authorities to ensure that they fully comply with their obligations under EU law.”

The letter emphasised that under EU law, personal data “can only be used and processed by a company where there is prior informed consent of the citizen concerned”.

Phorm's software, which tracks the websites a user visits in order to display relevant adverts, has caused uproar among privacy groups, especially after phone and internet provider BT trialled the system on unsuspecting customers, one of whom tried to prosecute the company.

However, the system was given the green light by BERR last month, provided that it met certain operating conditions.

A BERR spokeswoman said: “We have received the letter, and will of course give it our full attention and reply in due course.”

Author: James Verrinder

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