topic Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about? in Plusnet Feedback

BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Gel — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:25:38 GMT

I connect via the RIN to Plus Net, but got a BT Webwise page this morning inviting me to opt in, "
As a BT Total Broadband customer, you can try an exciting new service called BT Webwise.".
Is this BT trying to get customers to switch?

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Oldjim — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:27:10 GMT

Can you post the complete information as we would all (well me anyway) be very interested in how they spin it.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

chillypenguin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:35:11 GMT

See the Phrom mega thread;
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,61201.0.html

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

jelv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:37:02 GMT

We were told that would never happen. Please post a screen dump.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

petejackson — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:41:43 GMT

This is the first we've heard of this and it most definately shouldn't be happening. Thanks for letting us know and we'll start investigating this immediately. I'll update you when I know more.
In the meantime if you don't wish to connect over the RIN network you can change the DSL login in your modem or router to use the (username)@plusdsl.net realm. Don't forget if you do do this to switch your router off (power-off) and on again to connect.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

jelv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:04:18 GMT

Have you got enough capacity if all the RIN users switched back to the Plusnet Centrals?

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Oldjim — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:14:06 GMT

Quote from: Peter
In the meantime if you don't wish to connect over the RIN network you can change the DSL login in your modem or router to use the (username)@plusdsl.net realm. Don't forget if you do do this to switch your router off (power-off) and on again to connect.

Why do you need to switch off the router - all I ever did is to disconnect from RIN, put in the new username and reconnect

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

paulby — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:22:44 GMT

@Oldjim - it'll be to cover the various different types of router out there.
A reboot will definitely have the desired effect and it's probaly easier than trying to explain how to disconnect and reconnect on different devices.
(On my router, for example, you need to go to the stats page and click "Drop PPoA" then click "Dial PPoA" to reconnect.)
I also know of at least 1 router that won't permanently commit the change to flash memory without it going through a complete reboot cycle.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

ChemicalBrother — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:28:51 GMT

I've just swapped over to RIN for testing this out, but I haven't been presented with any options regarding Webwise at all - even going to their webwise page it tells me that it is not available..

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

petejackson — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:31:27 GMT

Quote from: jelv
Have you got enough capacity if all the RIN users switched back to the Plusnet Centrals?

Yes, there is enough capacity on our centrals. Connection to RIN was as a trial service and yes, we maintain enough capacity to manage users wishing to switch across. In addition there are only a relatively small number of customers on the RIN network.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Oldjim — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:31:56 GMT

@Roger,
The reason for that is that is the new trial with a limited number of customers being approached

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

petejackson — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:07:36 GMT

I've had an update on this. As you know, as soon as you alerted us to this we started investigations into how this might've happened.
@Gel - Sorry you had a surprise this morning. You are one of only around 250 customers who are connecting to the RIN network, as part of the trial we ran between February and September last year. RIN is BT's Retail Network that we were trying out on a trial basis. The RIN trial is unconnected to BT Webwise and it looks as though a configuration error was responsible for the presentation of the Webwise screen. This configuration was put right as soon as we were notified and as we understand it this has been confirmed as the only instance of this occurring. As previously stated, customers using RIN on Plusnet should not see the BT Webwise invitation screen or be able to join the BT Webwise trial.
We can confirm that no further Plusnet customers should be presented with the BT Webwise screen, and that our customers' web traffic will not form any part of the BT Webwise trial.
As I mentioned you can change your connection settings to (username)@plusdsl.net to connect to Plusnet Centrals at any time.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Gel — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:37:33 GMT

Screenshot

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Oldjim — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:49:53 GMT

If I didn't know better I would say "Yes Please" - that is really bad. It doesn't say anything about monitoring all your internet activities

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

zubel — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:53:41 GMT

El Reg having a slow day?
B.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Oldjim — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:03:30 GMT

Probably picked up one of these posts
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=newsite&Number=3495001
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=plusnet&Number=3494941

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

jelv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:07:48 GMT

I thought the last paragraph of the El Reg article said it all:

Quote
The incident appears to be isolated, but it once again highlights concerns about BT and Phorm's claims for the security of their interception technology, and their ability to operate it to specification.

Quote
When will you be trialling BT Webwise?
BT is commencing trials of BT Webwise on 30th September 2008. We will be inviting a small proportion of BT's consumer broadband customers to take part in the trial. The trial involves only BT Retail consumer broadband customers; it does not involve customers of BT Business, BT Ireland or other BT-owned ISPs, such as PlusNet.

"Oops, we made a technical error and Plusnet users were included."

Quote
# BT Webwise does not collect or store any personally identifiable information.
# BT Webwise ensures users' browsing remains anonymous by using a random-number cookie to link to each computer.
# BT Webwise doesn't keep records of individual websites that you visit or what you were doing on the web.

Given the level of incompetence BT/Phorm have exhibited today (they couldn't manage to exclude plusdsl2.net in spite of the concerns flagged up about this in the past), can we really trust those statements from BT regarding privacy?

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

jelv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:10:10 GMT

Quote from: Oldjim
Probably picked up one of these posts
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=newsite&Number=3495001
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=plusnet&Number=3494941

There could of been another reason they found out about it.

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

Oldjim — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:26:56 GMT

"You may think that I couldn't possibly comment"

Re: BT WEBWISE: What's it about?

pierre_pierre — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:28:47 GMT

Quote from: Gel
Screenshot posted
http://www.peasemore.plus.com/BTwebwise.pdf

if you want to past a PDF, the better way is to use the Addtional Options and then add it the same way as a picture