19 April 2008
Controversial Ad Network Caught Editing Wikipedia
Posted by Duckeldannys Money Blog under: Ad News; General; Net News .
Phorm has been beset by controversy for years over its business model and quietly-run trials on British Telecom’s (BT) broadband service.
Those responsible for editing negative material out of Phorm’s Wikipedia entry did the company’s public relations staff no favors. People who expunge unseemly but accurate information out of their entries tend to cause themselves even more grief.
The Phorm edits ended up being caught by critics of the company. A report at The Register said these edits replaced criticisms of Phorm with “more ‘on message’ PR-type statements.”
Another article from The Register noted Phorm’s admission it had made changes to the Wikipedia entry, as their PR staff were unaware of Wikipedia’s numerous rules that cover conflicts of interest and other aspects of editing Wikipedia.
Phorm’s service works with ISPs and tracks the behavior of the ISP’s customers. It then serves advertising based on the perceived interests of the person browsing the web.
Advocates of the approach see it as a way to bring relevant ad content to people while generating revenue for the ISP. Opponents in Britain question the targeting practices of Phorm, and have little use for the company’s claims it will protect privacy of Internet users.
