Privacy Impact Assessment

Click here to download the final PIA from 80/20 Thinking (PDF)

Privacy advisory firm 80/20 Thinking has completed the comprehensive Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) of Phorm and concludes that the company has embedded consumer privacy into its policies, practices and philosophy. Simon Davies, Managing Director of 80/20 Thinking, conducted the Privacy Impact Report with his colleague Gus Hosein, who is Visiting Fellow, Information Systems Group at the London School of Economics (About the Authors).

The report praises Phorm's openness and transparency, noting our engagement with stakeholders and participation in the PIA as examples of Phorm's corporate leadership in these areas.

The PIA, published today on privacy.phorm.com, was undertaken to provide Phorm with an in-depth assessment of its privacy policies and practices. The nine month study included a thorough analysis of Phorm's privacy claims and technology.

Since the preliminary, initial report was released early in 2008, we have addressed several claims in it. Among them, we have confirmed to 80/20 Thinking that Webwise does not track behaviours across sensitive sites; that anonymous cookies cannot be traced back to user identities; and that Webwise deliberately ignores "https" pages used by banks, and other personal data.

"Phorm's technology offers a high standard of privacy and data protection," confirms the PIA. "In addition to the 'privacy by design' elements, Phorm's clear willingness to engage has, in our view, provided a strong foundation for the continuation of a strong and sustainable privacy commitment."

Simon Davies, CEO of 80/20 Thinking continues: "Commitment to privacy is an ongoing process and I'm pleased that companies such as Phorm are firmly behind the PIA as part of an overall privacy strategy. At 80/20 Thinking, we believe that this attitude is one which should be more widely adopted in the online advertising industry to help provide web users with the information, guarantees and transparency that they need."

Phorm paid for this report. As a consultancy, 80/20 Thinking conducts audits for companies and it charges a fee to do so. Audits take time and resources, as did the one conducted by Ernst & Young (View report PDF), and we haven't yet found a free audit service that is worth our trust or anyone else's.

For more about how the report was conducted, see "About the PIA".