Press & PR

An industry analyst has claimed that a recent advertising deal struck between BT, Virgin and TalkTalk has been roundly rejected by the majority of its users.

The agreement, announced in February, has sparked debate over the extent to which private browsing information will be supplied to third parties. The advertising software works by tracking browsing habits on individual machines, with the data being used to make online advertising more targeted to personal interests.

Charles Arthur, Guardian commentator, asserts that around 95 per cent of customers would opt-out of such a scheme on the grounds that it is an invasion of privacy.

"The plan has outraged at least some of the internet service providers' customers, who are talking of leaving for smaller ISPs, complaining to the Information Commissioner's Office and at the very least opting out of the service," he notes.

Concerns have also been raised over the integrity of the company that will be handling the data after it emerged that one of its senior members of staff had previously been in charge of a marketing program that had been identified as spyware and blacklisted.

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