We've seen a lull in the debate over behavioral advertising here in the States, once NebuAD imploded after questions arose over whether their deep packet snooping technology violated your privacy rights. UK lawmakers have had no such reservations about the technology, giving the green light to Phorm, despite their history as a rootkit developer. One of Phorm's biggest partners, British Telecom, was recently exposed by Wikileaks for testing the system without informing customers, and has since decided to move into broader implementation of the system.

As you might expect, a significant number of UK customers are highly annoyed that a former rootkit developer is being sold their browsing histories. However, BT has developed an ingenious way to keep customers from complaining as they move forward: they're simply deleting any and all discussion of the technology from their forums. From an announcement by administrators:By "a number" of discussions, BT means they're not only banning all future discussion of the technology, but they retroactively deleted all threads concerning their Phorm controversy stemming back to February. When paired with Phorm's attempt to censor their Wikipedia entry to their benefit, the duo apparently believe they can eliminate the controversy the 1930's Chicago way. While certainly within their right as forum operators, BT is foolish to think this won't simply light a flame under the Phorm controversy.