How would you feel if someone was able to look at every web page you were viewing? How would you feel if they were able to store a record of what you viewed so that they can analyse it? How would you feel if they then used that data to target advertising at you? How would you feel if all of this was done without your consent, without your knowledge, and without your consultation?

Well if you're a BT Broadband customer then welcome to the new age, where your browsing habits are sold off to the highest bidder, in this case a company called "Phorm", in one of the biggest scandals of the year that you almost didn't hear about. For those of you on Virgin and TalkTalk don't think you're safe as you're next, and assuming that Phorm get their way then other major ISPs such as Orange and Tiscali will be following suit in the near future.

I only wish that I was being sensationalist yet the reality is here. I am not going to bore you with technical details, they can be found here on the Register and on other blogs, but this issue is of great importance. Phorm getting access to our data is a step that would create a precedence for organisations and government departments being able to pay ISPs a wad of cash for the ability to sift through our data for their associated purposes.

Read up more about this if you feel uncomfortable with the idea and want a full background, for those that don't wish to spend that time here is the gist...

Phorm, a company that used to create (or was associated with creators) of very intrusive spyware, pay your ISP a lot of money for the ability to view your browsing history via their installed hardware. Now, when you type an URL in to your web browser the Phorm software hijacks the request to see what you want to look at, logging what you're doing and then retrieving the webpage you want. Before letting you view that webpage it stores its contents then sends it your way.

It argues that its anonymising software, which means your data is only attributable to a unique ID not linked to sensitive information, means that such a process is safe, and it says that it does not store the contents of https webpages or long strings of numbers, i.e banking websites, web based email, etc. Even if both of these were true it is important to not ignore how much of a thin end of a wedge this kind of system is, and just how de-anonymising data isn't impossible. If someone were able to get hold of even just the sort of content that you view and cross reference that on the websites they come from then they are able to identify you, and worse identify your beliefs, political ideals, sexuality, and other things that are yours alone to divulge.

I've already written to my MP about this, and I am in the process of writing a letter of complaint to my ISP that informs them of my rights under the Data Protection Act 1998. Here is a good list of things that you can do if you want to stand against this technology being foisted upon us.