Online Targeted Advertising: Virgin Media and Phorm Scam

[Peter Brown]

Hi All

Sorry, but while this is not eCS or OS/2 related it could be of interest
to those among us who are Virgin Media customers.

It recently came to my attention that Virgin Media intend to SELL data
pertaining to their customers internet use to a company called Phorm who
will then use it to bombard said customers with targeted advertising
based on that data.

I queried Virgin Media on this and received the following response:-

Hello Mr Brown

REFERENCE : 2701767

Thank you for your e-mail dated 5 March 2008 regarding the information
you have received about Phorm. I am sorry for the delay in responding
which has been the result of a small back-log. This has been addressed.

I am sorry you are unhappy with the information. All Virgin Media
customer will have the option whether to use this service and when it
is launched our customers will be advised of the opt our procedure.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this matter has caused.

If you have further queries regarding this matter or any other issue,
please use the link provided below:

www.virginmedia.com/contact

Please note if you reply directly to this e-mail your response will not
be received.

Kind regards

Helen Atkinson
E-Contact Team
Virgin Media

Be Warned!

1] Any Virgin Media customer who does not fancy this idea needs to OPT
OUT in advance - if enough people take this course then the Virgin
Media/Phorm deal will be dead before it even starts.

2] The above response reads as though the scam will start BEFORE
customers are given the OPT OUT option. This will make sure that a
little of every customers data can be sold to Phorm who will probably
continue to use the data even after OPT OUT.

To OPT OUT in advance you need to go to the VM contact us page
www.virginmedia.com/contact

You need to enter something similar to this to OPT OUT (copy'n'paste if
you want):-

I have heard that you intend to sell data pertaining to my internet use
to another company who will then use that data to bombard me with online
adverts.

I do NOT agree with this.

I am instructing you NOW that I wish to OPT OUT of this scheme. You will
not sell any of my internet use data to anyone, ever.

Should Virgin Media ignore my OPT OUT I will have no hesitation in
taking Legal Action in this matter.

Hope the above is of use to others.

Pete

[Andrew Stephenson]

In article <B4eAj.232$kN5...@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>
losepeteS...@ntlworld.com "Peter Brown" writes:

> I queried Virgin Media on this and received the following response:-
>

> [...] our customers will be advised of the opt our procedure.

Huh. Opting out: here, a sure sign of scumminess at work. I am
becoming less and less happy with Virgin operations, everywhere.
I understood "inertia selling" was banned in the UK decades ago.
--
Andrew Stephenson

[Peter Brown]

Hi Andrew

Just before I found out about this I rang VM to sack them.

The reason was very simple: I had had some advertising bumpf through the
front door that stated prices for new broadband customers *after* their
introductory special price period finished.

This stated that a 2Mb connection would be charged at "the standard
price (currently £9 per month)".

As my "standard price" for that connection is double, ie £18 per month,
I gave them a ring, asked why the price differential and was given a
load of boll***s.

I then told them they were sacked and was put through to the Uninstall
Team. This "Team" informed me that I was due a "never ending Customer
Loyalty Discount". That discount only applies to TV and Phone but was
worth about 33% of my total monthly VM layout so I capitulated.

Should VM ignore my advance "opt out" option I will not hesitate to sack
them with 24 hours notice and take Legal Action on several fronts.

Worth noting here is that BT, CarPhoneWarehouse and pssibly others are
getting into this Phorm advertising scam so everyone should check what
their ISP is getting upto. You would not suddenly want to have loads of
advertising popups appearing on your Desktop - or would you?

Regards

Pete

[Peter J Seymour]

My understanding is that the opt out applies only to the advertising and
that you are not allowed to opt out of having your data gathered.
Peter

[Allodoxaphobia]

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:49:53 +0000, Peter J Seymour wrote:

> ... and that you are not allowed to opt out of having your data
> gathered.

I feel you should proceed from now on in life, _knowing full well_
that you'll always have your data gathered. And, realize when 'they'
give you an option to OPT OUT, 'they' are lying.

There is one _one_ person on this planet that you can truly rely on to
look out for _your_ best interests.