EU ready to put Big Brother Britain in the dock

Last year BT, the UK's incumbent telco, carried out trials of the Phorm system over its broadband network and on customers who were unaware that they were being used as guinea pigs and having their web browsing habits spied upon.

The EU Directive on privacy and electronic communications, that equates to a legally enforceable requirement, says that member states must "ensure confidentiality of communications and related data traffic data by prohibiting unlawful interception and surveillance" unless the users concerned have consented.

Following complaints from concerned individuals, privacy and consumer rights organisations the EC wrote on several occasions to the British government asking for an explanation of the trials and a rationale outlining exactly why they were not in breach of European legislation.

In response, the UK authorities said they were "happy" that the Phorm system meets European data laws and then proceeded to ignore further EC requests for a more detailed explanation and clarification - presumably in the expectation that if it ignored annoying and inconvenient missives the problem would simply go away. They are now finding that, like tax demands and parking tickets, some things won't simply disappear if you pretend they are not there.

The EC's position is that Phorm intercepts user data without consent and then users that illegally obtained information to map users Internet habits and advertise to them in breach of privacy laws.

In a statement, Viviane Reding, the EC's Commissioner for the Information Society and the Media is unequivocal. She says, ""Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used. European privacy rules are crystal clear: your information can only be used with your prior consent."

In a video posted on her website yesterday, Ms. Reding expands her argument to take in not only deep packet inspection software and targeted advertising based on behavioural analysis, but also the increasing incidence of RFID smart chips and the use being made by social networking websites of the huge and ever-increasing data they hold on users.

She says, "Technologies like Internet behavioural advertising can be useful for businesses and consumers but they must be used in a way that complies with EU rules. We cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored in exchange for a promise of 'more relevant' advertising.