Senior judges are to review the Digital Economy Act following a complaint from BT and TalkTalk that it was rushed through Parliament before the election.
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In particular, they claim measures in the new legislation designed to reduce copyright infringement via filesharing networks violate European rules including those on privacy and an ISP’s role as “mere conduit”.
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The hypocrisy here is simply astounding. On one hand they want to be treated as ‘mere conduits’, yet on the other they want to be able to ‘monetise’ their customers (gods I hate that term) by spying on their web traffic so that they can be served with targeted advertising. BT have Phorm, TalkTalk have Huawei and Virgin Media have CView.
They don’t deserve to be treated as mere conduits when they behave in such a deplorable way towards their customers.
Has anybody also noticed that big business always seem to get more attention than the general public? The privacy of tens of thousands of BT customers gets sacrificed to help BT’s bottom line. The ICO reaction to that? Nothing. The police’s reaction to that? Indifference. The home office’s reaction to Phorm? They tried to make sure that Phorm were ‘comforted’ by the advice they were giving out, rather than do their job.
Yet when the poor ISPs face losing being forced to hand over details and interfere with the service they provide they quickly manage to get a judicial review of the law.