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TalkTalk Homesafe failing to excite

The Guardian says:


"The number of people signing up to a "ground-breaking" new service to block children from accessing self-harm and pornography websites has slumped amid criticisms that it fails to achieve its aims, could breach privacy and employs technology connected to the Chinese military."

Rest of the article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/29/talktalk-homesafe-broadband-internet-criticisms

I particularly like the bit that says:

"HomeSafe, which TalkTalk has told its shareholders should help reduce the frequency of its customers defecting to rivals"

Homesafe & the associated scanning/spying is one of the main reasons why I & others have gone elsewhere.
 
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"HomeSafe, which TalkTalk has told its shareholders should help reduce the frequency of its customers defecting to rivals"

...which, of course, is why they introduced it - they don't really give a toss about "protecting" their customers, it's just another marketing ploy - if it cons the gullible into signing up with them (and being stuck with them for 18 months, I expect, though I haven't looked at the details of their offal - sorry, I mean offerings) then Dildo Hardon or whatever his name is has a smile on his face.

Nice to see that it's getting a bit of negative publicity in the mainstream media - and well done for ditching them. :)
(My website block, of course, now includes TT not just BT)
 
Very well said Custard. I cannot understand any one staying with them after the end of their 1st contract period!!

As far as service goes I've had no problems to speak of, so not had to resort to customer (dis)service, except for 1 issue resolved via the members forum. Maybe the problems will start now when I try to get any money that they might owe me.

The only reason I stayed with them for the full 18mo was as a matter of principle; I wasn't inclined to pay any thing for
early contract termination. I absolutely loathe their corporate attitude which seems to be one of take the money and sod those
paying the bills,and sod the law of the land, (there has been a comment elsewhere that there is legal opinion that their spy system
most probably breaches RIPA).

I'm sure Ms Hardon always has a smile on her face if she lives up to her nickname!!
 
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My only problem with HomeSafe is the semi-separate URL tracking that they perform upon all of their customers. The ISP claims not to breach RIPA by not storing any personal details but that's still not entirely correct as handing off a URL address, which can easily contain personal details, to a remote server/router in china is hardly something many people approve of. You'd have to be quite arrogant to think that the Chinese couldn't, if they so chose, find a way to quitely farm the useful bits of information.

On the other hand I do think that the AV/Blocking side of HomeSafe has taken a lot of unfair stick recently. The fact that it became mainstream news when one newspaper discovered that, shock horror, the service couldn't block 100% of "bad" sites was comical in the extreme :) . Clearly some people actually expected it to be perfect (we can blame some of that on their marketing) but no similar solutions work 100%, it's no substitute for good parenting.

Then we get a news article this week about HomeSafe having significantly lower uptake than at launch, but why is that even news? HomeSafe is an add-on with a specific purpose. Surely its uptake appeal would thus be limited (scale off over time) to either those with children or those whom don't feel as though their current AV software is good enough.

A better story for the newspapers to run would be one focused on the comparative uptake, as a proportion of subscribers, of their FTTC "Fibre" superfast broadband product. It would be interesting to see, if TalkTalk ever reveals the stats, how many people have actually adopted their service.
 
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