Posts by Gerry 9 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Oct 2007
You'd really think that by now the BBC might have got the message about not ripping off the public, but BBC Radio is still doing exactly that.
Many BBC local stations claim that their 0845 number is charged at "Standard Rates", which is completely untrue because this hasn't been the case for many years.
www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/search/daylist.cgi?service_id=50737&day=Saturday
Weekend calls to standard 01, 02 & 03 numbers are free on the basic BT tariff but are chargeable for 0845 numbers. Similarly, callers who have free evening calls only to standard numbers are also being conned by the BBC.
Wake up, Ofcom, hit them with another fine !
Despite having history set to 0 days, all cookies blocked except for specified sites, it seems that Opera is quite happy to give away my private data to all and sundry.
Even worse, "Delete Private Data" doesn't stop the leakage: you'd have to close Opera and then re-open it. That's utterly outrageous !
The dreaded IE and Safari weren't as bad: they both leaked, but not after "Delete Browsing History" and "Clear History" were used.
So goodbye Opera, it's Firefox for me from now on. It didn't leak, even before I clicked on "Clear Private Data".
Let's hope they've made some real improvements, unlike Opera 9.50 which seems to have gone backwards. If you use Delete Private Data, all the Speed Dials waste time and bandwidth by phoning home to refresh the thumbnails.
And Opera's tabbed browsing is now much worse because all the tabs look virtually identical, there are no longer any red and blue buttons to show which is the one to close.
Yup, I know this is the wrong place to post Opera whinges, but the Reg's Kestrel story doesn't have comments enabled.
Paris, because she's not shy about going forward.
Although I have unchecked "Enable Real Player Cookies" in the preferences dialogue box, and I always delete cookies when exiting Opera, Ad-Aware always finds that Real Player has installed a Tracking Cookie.
it's about time that Real Player was told to stop breaching users' privacy in this way.
Now that the new 03 numbers are up and running (always charged the same as geographic numbers), ANY organisation that uses 084 / 087 numbers has only one reason - to rip off their customers.
The only legitimate use is where a genuine value-added service is provided, and there aren't many, apart from dial-up internet access.
It's crazy allowing revenue-generating 084 / 087 numbers in the 08 range. Few people know the true cost of calling these rip-off numbers - not surprisingly, they think that 08 is a 'friendly' range because it's used for Freephone 080.
Many big names, including NHS hospitals, break the law by making false claims about call costs. A 1-minute BT Option 1 landline daytime call costs 8p on 0845 and 12p on 0870, but most advertisers claim that the maximum cost is only 4p or 6p per minute, if they mention the cost at all.
Some even claim that mega-expensive 0844 numbers are local rate !
www.midyorks.nhs.uk/News/New+hospital+telephone+number.htm
http://mywitney.co.uk/content/view/245/82/
All the wallies at Ofcom need to do is to announce that the 084 and 087 rip-off ranges will be abolished in six months' time. Companies should be told to migrate to the equivalent 094 / 097 premium rate numbers if they still wish to rip customers off, or to the equivalent 034 / 037 numbers in the surcharge-free 03 range if they're only interested in Intelligent Call Routing.
Although Opera is set to delete cookies on exit (and I always delete Private Data anyway), Ad-Aware always shows that Real Player has left a tracking cookie rated as critical.
I've set Real so that it doesn't accept cookies or send back data, but it always seems to ignore my preferences.
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