The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has once again delayed plans to rule on whether or not to charge either Phorm and or BT over the broadband ISPs secret 2006/2007 trials of Phorm's technology, which tracked customers private website visits (not unlike Spyware) for use in targeted advertising campaigns; this was done without end-users consent.

Privacy campaigner Alexander Hanff (PI / NoDPI) had originally begun pushing for the CPS to investigate at the end of 2008. This followed a decision by the City of London Police (CoLP) not to pursue BT's secret trials. The CoLP originally stated that such an investigation would have been too costly, too complex and those taking part in the trials were curiously deemed to have given their implied consent (here).


It's understood that the CPS also instructed the same detective who looked at the original CoLP complaint, DS Barry Murray, to investigate the case against Phorm. A decision had originally been expected in November 2010 (here), although this was later delayed to Mid-December 2010. It's now unlikely to happen until sometime next year.