The Crown Prosecution Service is collecting evidence to establish whether BT illegally tested the Phorm online advertising system without users' consent.
The inquiry focuses on Phorm's Webwise system, which monitors a person's web browsing and search terms in order to serve up related advertisements.
An internal BT document leaked in June showed BT conducted a two-week test involving 18,000 subscribers in September and October 2006 but did not inform those users.
Privacy activists have suggested the trials violated wiretapping laws and posed data security and privacy concerns. BT maintains no laws were broken.
A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said the agency will make a determination whether there are grounds for prosecution at a later date. A BT spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
Phorm discussion banned in BT forum
BT's secret trials could have potentially violated the Data Protection Act, which mandates that personal data can't be processed without consent. The trials could have also conflicted with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of 2000, which makes it illegal to monitor communication between two entities without proper consent.
Digital rights activists have pushed for law enforcers to examine BT's trials. Alexander Hanff submitted extensive documentation on Webwise to the City of London police, but the agency concluded no laws were broken.
Hanff encouraged people on Thursday to write letters to CPS in support of prosecuting BT for illegal interception.
Other government agencies have also examined Webwise. In January, the Home Office declared that targeted ad systems with user consent don't violate the law. The Information Commissioner's Office, which handles data privacy regulations, had said it will continue to monitor deployments of the system.
The ruckus over privacy issues led BT to emphasise that users will be asked whether they want to participate. Webwise uses a cookie - a piece of data stored in the browser - in order to track a user's internet activity.
The cookie contains an anonymous user ID, which is then associated with certain categories, such as 'cameras' or 'computers', which then determine what ads a person may see on web pages that use Phorm to serve ads.
BT started another trial of the system in September and is attempting to get 10,000 users to enroll in it. The company plans to roll out Webwise to its entire broadband customer base, but no schedule has been set.
Two other ISPs, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse, are also planning to trial Webwise.
Comments
Matt said: To be quite honest there crap there doing things illegal and they have already been caught doing this once before 2006 so WHY are they still up and runng
redstringuitar said: In the current climate of economicpolitical unrest it is becoming increasingly apparent that large corporations operate under a thin veneer of civility and are actually run by immoral fat-cats who will stoop to any level that they can get away with in order to seperate you from your hard-earned moneyI would say that they should be ashamed off their conduct but that would be like shouting at monkies for throwing stISPs phone companies energy providers banks and lenders have been fleecing us all for years and getting away with it by lying through their teethNow we have to be vigilant scrutinize these crooks and bring them to book whenever the figures dont add up Somethings gotta change
Allan said: To Ron Secret because they have already done it once This is over what they did in 2006 You are only reading about the new trial because they were busted
Pete said: If i pay for my connection then i want it all for myself its my money I dont want adverts hogging my bandwidth I dont want to be told they only take up a small portion Its mine i have paid for it Leave it alone
Ron said: Im all in favour of prosecuting BT over this shame they cant be busted just for being crap but SECRET I dont think so Unacceptable definitely illegal probably but not at all secretIf theres anyone who doesnt know about the BT Phorm trial they havent been paying attention - its been widely discussed even in the mainstream press not just the IT mediaWhat we need is a court ruling or legislation if the courts let us down to prevent ANY ISP hawking its customers private data to anybody at all ever without consent Better still just make it illegal to do it at all - period
Kerry X said: I could never trust a company that employs ex-chancellor Normal Lamont as a director and runs some of its monitoring operations from Moscow
Fred said: Here is more information on writing to the CPS and why it is essentialhttpsnodpiorg20081127l
Steve Hankin said: Its an absolute disgrace that this has not been before our courts yet The very idea that a large coporation such as BT can do something which should be seen asa a break of the law yes criminally by interception of private comms and get away with it is crazy Public interest DOES require laws to be upheld EVERYONE Write to the CPS on this issue