Mr.AJ
Educated Horse.
BT are going to be introducing "trial" software in mid-march of this year called BT Webwise. The way it works is it stores all the informaton of every site you visit and sends it to a 3rd party advertising agency, who then process the information and use it to display relevant adverts to you.
Heres a few informative links for those who want to learn a bit about how it works.
The Register
BT's Forum
BT Webwise
The best part? Its OPT-OUT not OPT-IN. Meaning if you clear your computers cookies (As many people routinely do, to clear up HDD space.) and forget to opt-out again even if you don't want them to, Phorm will start to receive your informaton.
Think i'm going to try to use this as a way to get out of my BT Internet contract, I've never been happy with them ALWAYS have problems.
--Boring backstory begins here, only read if you want to hear an angry northern bloke rant, Doesn't actually have anything to do with webwise---
When i had BT installed everything went fine, for a week (Unless you include the fact they originally forgot to order the internet onto my account.) After a week i started having trouble connecting to many non-UK based sites (Including this site) unless it was between 6-8am and 8pm-6am. Then it started going VERY slow constantly.. we're talking slower than 56k - To the point where BT's own speed test timed out.
Oh well, Off to ring their helpfull call center i think!. 6 hours on the phone (every minute of which im paying BT for.) to people in india who barely spoke english (Not racism, They really did barely speak english.) including an hour which i spent explaining the basics of ADSL to the manager. At the end of the 6hours, they still didn't understand what i was complaining about and kept accusing me of lying about the problem.
Eventually they agree'd to send an engineer out. Who phoned me 2hours before the appointment, to tell me he wasnt coming and would come first thing the next morning. He never turned up. It took me nearly a month to get another engineer to the house. Who told me the problem was the homehub they had given me (Which i already knew, and had told customer services many many times.) Then took another week to get a replacement hub out to me.
Just as this fiasco is over they overcharge my bank account by 3 MONTHS. Refuse to refund it. But the nice Urdu lady kindly offered me the next 3 months free to make up for it (But wait, i've already paid for them? You kindly used my rent money which was due out the day after your direct debit to pay for them.) - Also, got accused of lying by the customer services staff again in this call because i told them the bill had come in my girlfriends name - She accused me of lying about this 3 times despite the fact i was physically holding the bill addressed to my girlfriend.
Then everythings honky dory for 2 or 3 months (Slow speeds occasionally, but nothing that could make me wish to speak to their customer service consultants again.) That is until we get to january, They bill me.. But don't take the direct debit out. I ring them to question this, the lady on the phone insists it was taken out. So i think " it, Im skint that bill money is all i have to get food with they say they've been paid so ill use it." Febuary i get a letter (Dated 15th feb) from them telling me i haven't paid januarys bill and saiying they will remove the money from my account on the 23rd of febuary. I recieved this letter on the 28th. ing A. Check my bank account, Sure enough they'd tried to take the money out but because that account is only used for my bills it only has money in it when im expecting a bill. So still they havent been paid and i have a nice big bank charge. The money would of been in the account if they told me before they attempted to take it out.
Now i find out they want to record every website i visit to sell off to a 3rd party company... :eek1: that! I'll keep their telephone line (only provider available around here) but im jumping ship on the internet connection.
Heres a few informative links for those who want to learn a bit about how it works.
The Register
BT's Forum
BT Webwise
The best part? Its OPT-OUT not OPT-IN. Meaning if you clear your computers cookies (As many people routinely do, to clear up HDD space.) and forget to opt-out again even if you don't want them to, Phorm will start to receive your informaton.
Think i'm going to try to use this as a way to get out of my BT Internet contract, I've never been happy with them ALWAYS have problems.
--Boring backstory begins here, only read if you want to hear an angry northern bloke rant, Doesn't actually have anything to do with webwise---
When i had BT installed everything went fine, for a week (Unless you include the fact they originally forgot to order the internet onto my account.) After a week i started having trouble connecting to many non-UK based sites (Including this site) unless it was between 6-8am and 8pm-6am. Then it started going VERY slow constantly.. we're talking slower than 56k - To the point where BT's own speed test timed out.
Oh well, Off to ring their helpfull call center i think!. 6 hours on the phone (every minute of which im paying BT for.) to people in india who barely spoke english (Not racism, They really did barely speak english.) including an hour which i spent explaining the basics of ADSL to the manager. At the end of the 6hours, they still didn't understand what i was complaining about and kept accusing me of lying about the problem.
Eventually they agree'd to send an engineer out. Who phoned me 2hours before the appointment, to tell me he wasnt coming and would come first thing the next morning. He never turned up. It took me nearly a month to get another engineer to the house. Who told me the problem was the homehub they had given me (Which i already knew, and had told customer services many many times.) Then took another week to get a replacement hub out to me.
Just as this fiasco is over they overcharge my bank account by 3 MONTHS. Refuse to refund it. But the nice Urdu lady kindly offered me the next 3 months free to make up for it (But wait, i've already paid for them? You kindly used my rent money which was due out the day after your direct debit to pay for them.) - Also, got accused of lying by the customer services staff again in this call because i told them the bill had come in my girlfriends name - She accused me of lying about this 3 times despite the fact i was physically holding the bill addressed to my girlfriend.
Then everythings honky dory for 2 or 3 months (Slow speeds occasionally, but nothing that could make me wish to speak to their customer service consultants again.) That is until we get to january, They bill me.. But don't take the direct debit out. I ring them to question this, the lady on the phone insists it was taken out. So i think " it, Im skint that bill money is all i have to get food with they say they've been paid so ill use it." Febuary i get a letter (Dated 15th feb) from them telling me i haven't paid januarys bill and saiying they will remove the money from my account on the 23rd of febuary. I recieved this letter on the 28th. ing A. Check my bank account, Sure enough they'd tried to take the money out but because that account is only used for my bills it only has money in it when im expecting a bill. So still they havent been paid and i have a nice big bank charge. The money would of been in the account if they told me before they attempted to take it out.
Now i find out they want to record every website i visit to sell off to a 3rd party company... :eek1: that! I'll keep their telephone line (only provider available around here) but im jumping ship on the internet connection.
