Why is Virgin Media looking into the Webwise system?
We are very keen to ensure our customers have a safer online experience, but without blocking access. In this respect Webwise could allow us to alert customers that they may be attempting to visit a site known to be fraudulent. Additionally, by providing customers with more relevant advertising, they should be able to find products and services that are more interesting for them.
How could Webwise make my internet experience safer?
Webwise helps you avoid scams, such as ‘phishing’ – this is where someone pretends to be a well known brand, like a bank, but is looking to steal your confidential information. You might receive an email which appears to be authentic, asking you to enter details such as account numbers and passwords, which are then stolen and used fraudulently. Commonly known as ‘phishing’, these websites can be hard to spot as they are designed to look just like genuine websites.
Webwise checks these sites against a regularly updated list of fraudulent sites and warns you if you’re heading to one. You’re given the option to continue to that site or not, so Webwise won’t restrict your online experience in any way, but at least you’ll be able to decide for yourself and avoid this form of identity theft. In this way, Webwise can help to protect your personal information.
How does Webwise reduce the number of irrelevant advertising I see?
Another reason we’re looking into Webwise is that it can help reduce irrelevant advertising. As you browse web pages, Webwise looks at things like search terms, and learns what topics might be of interest. This is done without collecting any personal information, so once again your privacy is protected. These topics are then used to help some advertisers replace their adverts with ones that might be more relevant to you. Don’t worry, you won’t see any more adverts than you currently do, some of them will just be more relevant. For example if you searched for keywords like “Paris” and “Eurostar”, instead of random uninteresting adverts, you might see an advert for French hotels instead.
Will Webwise intrude on my privacy?
Webwise has been designed from the ground up to protect your privacy and anonymity. As the system only learns about topics of interest, it does this anonymously, ensuring your privacy is completely protected.
Webwise doesn't capture or store any customers’ personal details, only anonymous information about advertising categories that may be of interest to them. Webwise places a common cookie in web browsers - a small computer code with a unique, randomly generated number on it. With this cookie, Webwise can deliver warnings of potentially dangerous websites and replace some untargeted ads with more relevant ones. This cookie can be deleted at any time.
So what information is collected?
Webwise uses the website address, keywords and search terms from the page viewed to match a category or area of interest (e.g., travel or finance). After matching, this information is discarded permanently, except the category information. The category information is only associated with a unique, randomly-generated cookie that can be deleted at any time from the browser.
- Neither the web addresses, nor search terms you use are stored. They are purely matched to an advertising topic and then permanently discarded.
- Webwise won’t store your internet (IP) address or keep a history of your browsing. The system or advertisers won’t know who you are or the websites you’ve visited.
- No personally-identifiable information such as email addresses, surnames, street addresses, or phone numbers are ever stored.
- No sensitive or personal financial information, such as credit card numbers, login IDs, passwords or bank account numbers are ever stored.
- Steps are taken to actively ensure details such as credit card numbers, email addresses etc are never captured.
Isn’t this just spyware?
Certainly not. We’re only looking into Webwise as it doesn’t record your activities like spyware does. In fact Webwise was designed to help ensure customer privacy.
Has Virgin Media ever deployed the Webwise system?
No. As part of an early evaluation of the system to understand how the technology works we have run a small technical lab test on a private internal network, not connected to the internet. We have never deployed the system, either as a trial or otherwise, and would never do so without informing our customers first.
Will customers be able to decide whether to use the system?
In the event we do roll out the system, customers won’t be forced to use the system, and will have the choice to keep their internet experience exactly as it is now. If we proceed, as we get closer to launch we’ll explain how this will work.
