Nationwide opts out of Phorm

21 Jul 2009

Nationwide is the latest to opt out of the controversial Phorm, the system which has raised privacy concerns because of how it monitors the websites you visit and targets ad campaigns to you.

It decided not to have its pages scanned by the system.

This month has been damaging for Phorm after seeing key ISP supporters BT and TalkTalk drop plans to use the technology.

Nationwide Building Society has joined other major online organisation like Wikipedia and Amazon who are asking Phorm not to scan its pages.

A Nationwide Building Society letter sent on 1st July said:

"We have had discussions with our online advertising agency on Phorm and as a result of this review we have decided to contact Phorm and ask them not to scan the Nationwide website. Investigating the service that they are looking to offer, we do not see the benefit to our customers or to us of allowing them to scan the Nationwide website in this way.

We will be getting in touch with Phorm over the next few days, though we are unfortunately unable to confirm how long it will take for them to action our request."

Phorm claims there are still other interested ISPs but has refused to name them.

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