Phorm turns up in Brazil After months lost in a jungle of its own creation, Phorm, the much-maligned internet monitoring and profiling outfit, today emerged with new hopes its technology and the tens of millions spent on it might bring some return. Brazil has long been a destination of choice for those who hit trouble in Britain, and Phorm is no …
Have a go in the USA. The directors of ISPs and Phorm will discover the impact of the Second Amendment.
I have an even better idea - a system to listen to all telephone calls and when key words are introduced, to play a low volume advertising message in the background alterting the caller and receiver to the offer. Oh, is there a law against that ? Interception of communication ?
How do these idiots get off with announcing "Commercial Deployment" when it is another of their stupid trials....
http://tecnologia.ig.com.br/noticia/2010/03/25/nova+ferramenta+cria+a+navegacao+personalizada+9439913.html
"25/03 - 21:29 pm
New tool creates custom navigation
Navigator provides research without the Internet user to type commands
iG Sao Paulo
The Hi, largest telecommunications company in the country, and the main Brazilian portals have teamed up to launch a tool to help web users to have what might be called a personalized experience. This is the Navigator, which will be offered free initially to a small group of Internet users in Rio de Janeiro, will reach the entire state for two months until the end of 2010 should be accessible to Internet users in Brazil, also free. The launch took place on Thursday, 25. Besides Hi, participate in the project your portal iG, to the newspaper, UOL and Terra."
..... small group of users in Rio de Janeiro. Two month trial. Might be introduced to the rest of the country sometime towards the end of this year. Sure Kent, we've heard it all before....
Phorm look-alikes already tried that stuff in the USA. They disappeared after Senators and the like started calling them to Washington and explain what they were doing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NebuAd
This all reminds me of the Tobacco Industry. So you're a leach of a company that produces a product providing little or no value to society? And you've been regulated out of existence in the nations with strong, democratic governments? Well, just expand your market into the developing world, where weak governments, cultures of corruption and the like will give you fertile ground to peddle your wares.
Glad I'm doing something more productive with my life.
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I imagine they are waiting for the legal situation to sort itself out. If it is established that Phorm broke the law with their trial then there will be huge pressure from the lawyers to force a "pure opt-in" operating model, at which point the commercial value is outweighed by the PR cost of pimping your own customers.
Oh, and plus the fact that Phorm's directors might be in jail.
What phorm struggle with in ANY new market, is the fact that unlike in the UK, their globally disastrous reputation precedes them. Already today there have been Portugese blog articles with all the key important inphormation links that Brazilians need if they want to find out more.
I see that despite the usual Kent Ertugrul hype, the share price has hardly shifted at all. So the markets aren't impressed then.
Kent - we've heard it all before. It's a TRIAL - and a trial that seems only to mention the Webwise Discover/Navigado/Qook Smartweb wonder widget, and not anything else. It is a tiny trial in one city, and it contains the hollow promise of a national commercial rollout by the end of the year. Now where have we heard that before?
One blog I read
http://eduardosan.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/a-china-e-aqui-phormando-um-monopolio/
said that Brazilians who didn't know English just needed to learn one key fact - and then he quoted from the FIPR think tank report - and as the portugese translation for the word he wanted to highlight is "ilegal" I think they got the point.
"Our commercial deployment in partnership with many of Brazil's leading internet players reflects the many lessons learnt from experiences in other markets."
Lessons such as knowing when you're not wanted?
This seems to be hot air from a company desperate to raise money to stay in business. No statements from the ISPs involved. Not even a date when this claimed launch is proposed to occur.
And pre-booked revenue? What does that mean in hard cash terms from a 'pre-revenue' company? $5m, even if it were used notes, it wouldn't keep Kent's ship afloat for much more than a month.
This is the same Kent Ertugrul who claimed BT Webwise would most definitely be online by the end of 2009, before telling us it was no great surprise that BT ditched them.
I'm appalled Phorm are still in business. Appalled BT directors are not in jail. Appalled the police have taken no action. Appalled the ICO have so comprehensively failed the UK public. Appalled Companies House won't enforce the laws that apply to every other UK business. Appalled the CPS can't explain why - 528 days after they received a complaint - they have done nothing.
But most appalled by the shameless corruption of our politicians and civil servants.
Phorm Webwise is an egregious scam.
It can only take into account WHAT people are searching for, but has no way of knowing the WHY.
Although the marketing morons all believe that if you plug a query into a search engine it MUST mean that you want to buy it.
Targeted advertising is simply corporate stalking, and should be just as illegal as other types of stalking, because it is just as creepy and offensive.
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