Privacy palaver
Talk Talk is pushing ahead with a pilot anti-malware service that logs the web pages its customers' visit, despite being caught out after previously secretly testing it on its furious customers.
According to eWeek Europe, the ISP had been secretly testing its Virus Alerts service on customer guinea pigs and the secrecy was blown in July after one of its eagle-eyed users reportedly spotted 2 ‘guest' IP addresses in his web server logs. Meanwhile a handful of other users were said to have worked out that they were being tracked by the same IPs and all hell broke loose on the firm's web forums.
Talk Talk's Virus Alerts reportedly records all the web addresses its customers visit so it can warn customers if they are visiting a site the firm knows to contain malware.
However while customers might be up for a little help in warding off viral nasties, they were reportedly not impressed that the service was tested on them without their consent and many commentators compared the practice to BT's Phorm service which landed the ISP in hot water.
In a bid to clear up the situation (but push on with its plans anyway) Talk Talk will let customers opt-in to the new service, which will not track individual browsing histories, according the company's blog.
"We now expect to be able to commence trials for a limited number of customers who have agreed to test our anti-malware system in the next few weeks. As a reminder, this system will warn customers who opt into the service about sites they try to access, which we know to be infected with viruses or other malicious software.
"The system also records all the website URLs to which our whole network has been asked to connect. The system simply records the destination website URLs; it does not record who sends the request or other personal data with the URL," said the blog.
Talk Talk is working with Chinese firm Huawei which has created ThoughVirus Alerts.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) reportedly probed Talk Talk's secret tests a couple of months ago and was not impressed at how the firm had treated its 4.2m customers but now thinks Talk Talk's new opt-in tact is okay.
