Company History
In its previous incarnation as 121Media, the company made products that were described as spyware. 121Media distributed a program called PeopleOnPage, which was classified as spyware by F-Secure. PeopleOnPage was an application built around their advertising engine, called ContextPlus. ContextPlus was also distributed as a rootkit called Apropos, which used tricks to prevent the user from removing the application and sent information back to central servers regarding a user's browsing habits.
The Center for Democracy and Technology, a United States-based advocacy group, filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission in November 2005 over distribution of what it considered spyware, including ContextPlus. They stated that they had investigated and uncovered deceptive and unfair behaviour. This complaint was filed in concert with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Internet Center, a group that was filing a similar complaint against Integrated Search Technologies with Canadian authorities.
ContextPlus shut down its operations in May 2006 and stated they were "no longer able to ensure the highest standards of quality and customer care". The shutdown came after several major lawsuits against adware vendors had been launched. By September 2007, 121Media had become known as Phorm, and admitted a company history in adware and stated it had closed down the multi-million dollar revenue stream from its PeopleOnPage toolbar, citing consumers’ identification of adware with spyware as the primary cause for the decision.
In early 2008 Phorm admitted editing its article on Wikipedia. Phorm admitted removing a quotation from The Guardian's commercial executives describing the opposition they have towards its tracking system, and deleting a passage explaining how BT admitted misleading customers over covert Phorm trials in 2007. The changes were quickly noticed and reversed by the online encyclopedia's editors.
Phorm currently resides in Mortimer Street, London, UK with staffing levels of around 35.
Read more about this topic: Phorm
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