Amazon bars controversial Phorm technology from its sites

Webwise was developed by Phorm and trialled by BT and was at the centre of a political storm this week when the European Commission launched legal action against the UK, saying that its implementation of EU directives was inadequate, as privacy complaints about Phorm had demonstrated.

Webwise is designed to be used by internet service providers (ISPs) to boost advertising income. It monitors subscribers' web use in order to build a profile of users that will govern what advertising is shown to which users.

BT trialled the system without subscribers' knowledge or permission and its use, even with notice, has caused privacy activists to claim that the technology is illegal and a dangerous monitoring of private life.

Web site owners can demand that Webwise do not monitor anybody's use of its sites. Digital rights pressure group the Open Rights Group (ORG) last month called on the web's biggest names to block Webwise. It wrote to Google, Microsoft, eBay, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo! and AOL, and Amazon is the first of those names to block the monitoring.

"You may already be aware of the very significant concerns being expressed by many of your UK internet customers about the interception and processing of their data whenever it is viewed by customers whose ISPs deploy the Phorm/Webwise system," said ORG's letter to the companies.

"[Users] may be using other internet providers, but the information they put on your website may well be viewed by them as personal, and they will not wish it to be read and stored by third party technologies," it said.

Companies can 'opt out' of the system by asking Phorm to stop its technology from tracking user behaviour on its websites.

"While we recognise that an 'opt-out' is an entirely second-rate way of dealing with this problem, we would strongly urge you to take advantage of it, in order to immediately reduce the risk of harm to your company and to your customers," said the letter.

"Making your decision public will provide reassurance to your customers, and will help them retain confidence in your brand, as well as in the integrity of the Internet as a whole," it said.

A statement released by Amazon said simply: "we have contacted Webwise requesting that we opt-out for all of our domains". The company did not comment further.

The European Commission this week said that it was launching legal action against the UK because the Phorm controversy had revealed failures in the UK's implementation of an European Union directive protecting the privacy of communications.

"The Commission has concerns that there are structural problems in the way the UK has implemented EU rules ensuring the confidentiality of communications," said a Commission statement.

"Technologies like internet behavioural advertising can be useful for businesses and consumers but they must be used in a way that complies with EU rules," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. “These rules are there to protect the privacy of citizens and must be rigorously enforced by all Member States."

Update, 17/04/2009: The Wikimedia Foundation, the not-for-profit group behind Wikipedia, has said that it is also opting out of Phorm.