The European Commission (EC) has reportedly written a second letter to the UK government in response to its previous reply, which expressed support for Phorm (here). The new letter seeks to clarify several as yet unanswered legal issues that surround BT's secret 2006 and 2007 trials of the controversial advertising system.

It's understood that the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) has so far failed to address concerns about BT's past deployments of Phorm and lacked information concerning how their current trial would be regulated:


BT recently started its first 'official' trial of the Phorm advertising system (here), which has frustrated many due to its use of the flawed cookie method (browser text file used to track personal details) that is easily broken.

The City of London Police also caused significant controversy last month when it canned a possible investigation (here), sighting reasons such as complexity, cost and implied consent. BERR has been given one month to respond to the EU’s latest letter, although it hasn’t arrived yet.