Phorm, the targeted web advertising company, is considering offering customers who opt-in a payment related to their surfing activity. Phorm is considering contributing to the customers broadband bill or is even willing to make a donation to charity, for any user that signs up for the service.
With BT contemplating rolling out Phorm's service to known as BT "Webwise" it may be that BT customers will be able to receive a reduction in their broadband bill.
The fact that BT and Phorm had been conducting secret trials of the system without BT’s customers’ knowledge caused major concerns over privacy last year and led to the Information Commissioner suggesting that the scheme should only be implemented as an "opt-in" service.
Given the general suspicion that users have in respect of their surfing activity being tracked, the payment to encourage "opt-in" will need to be significant for most users to accept such a service.
