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Home Office answers Phorm questions

• Darren Waters
• 29 Apr 09, 10:14 GMT

I wrote about e-mails sent back and forth between the Home Office and the behavioural advertising service Phorm, I asked the government department seven specific questions.

Here are those questions and the answers supplied by a Home Office spokesperson.

(1) Why was the Home Office collaborating with and seeking feedback on a document from a company whose technology it was supposed to be assessing from a legal standpoint?

"The Home Office has responsibility for the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) which among other things deals with the interception of communications.
"The Home Office was interested in understanding how targeted online advertising would work and what some of the issues were. The Home Office was not assessing any particular form of technology. And as made clear (see paragraph below) it definitely was not providing any legal guidance.
"'This note offers informal guidance on issues relating to the provision of targeted online advertising services. It should not be taken as a definitive statement or interpretation of the law, which only the courts can give.'
"We listened to representations from one company about a complex area.
"The Home Office is not responsible for assessing the suitability or otherwise of any particular commercial product or method."

"This refers to the government's desire that a balance is struck between safeguarding privacy and enabling legitimate technological innovation."

"The government has not endorsed Phorm or any other similar products.
"We appreciate the commercial companies want to develop new technology but we are committed to protecting the privacy of UK consumers and will ensuring that any new technology of this sort is applied in an appropriate and transparent manner, in full accordance with the law and with proper regulation from the appropriate authority."

"The Office of Security and Counter Terrorism is part of the Home Office and will continue to work with business to understand their commercial developments whilst ensuring that there is a proper balance between privacy and public safety. We welcome companies sharing ideas and proposals for new products in commercial confidence as it offers both sides the opportunity to consider relevant issues, including the impact on public safety etc."

"The Home Office has made no assessment of the legality of BT's trials or any other targeted on line advertising system. However in drawing up the generic Q&A the Home Office did have discussions with Phorm and they were invited to comment - but the Q&A was not written specifically for Phorm."

"This was not a policy document and was not shared with ministers. It was Q&A produced to try to improve the understanding of the issues. As set out above Home Office met with Phorm and we wanted to ensure that we had understood their explanation of how target online advertising works."

"No, but we would have shared it with other companies had they expressed an interest in it."