BT and Phorm part company for now
ISP's trial with web-habit tracker, Phorm, comes to an end
BT's controversial trial with Phorm, which began in September, has finally ended.
Phorm, the internet habit tracker, used its technology to track 10,000 BT customers for what the company has called "a number of weeks".
While neither company has come out to say that the trial was a success, a Phorm statement does say that the trial "achieved its primary objectives," explaining: "Phorm, the advertising technology company, is pleased to announce that the trial with ISP partner BT has now concluded.
"The trial achieved its primary objective of testing all the elements necessary for a larger deployment, including the serving of small volumes of targeted advertising."
The statement continued: "Following the successful completion of analysis, both of the trial results and of any changes required for expansion, BT has informed the company that it expects to move towards deployment."
New trials
The trial courted controversy when it began due to the privacy issues that come with targeted advertising – as it does mean that browsing habits have to be tracked.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
New trials are set to take place with Virgin Media and TalkTalk. The dates of these have yet to be announced. A trial, however, with Orange will not take place as the company decided against teaming up with Phorm due to concerns over privacy.
Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.