Re: "the interception of the URLs visited by a user, in 2006 and 2007, without letting customers know."

It's worse than just obtaining the URL. There is a T-junction in BT's Intertubes somewhere that sends all Web traffic (Webmail, Forum posts, perhaps even this very comment) to one of Phorm's servers, at which point Phorm decides for you whether or not the thing they have just stolen is "privacy sensitive". If it is (like, oh, email addresses or bank account numbers because we all know that there is no other privacy sensitive data), Phorm generously refrains from analysing those parts of the webpage.

To add to the euphoria, the system also has the capability of sending you, transparently, to a different web page than the one you just asked for. Earlier versions of the system would also insert Phorm's Javascript into the pages you asked for.

In a burst of creative writing, they advertise this as a defense against Phishing, and a great privacy-enhancing feature.

They are also very proud of their "Opt-out" feature. All that it requires is a cookie stored on your machine, and you will just get to block the normal, non-targeted ads until "something" happens to that cookie. It does not, however, keep them from rooting through your web traffic.

I want to see this company die. Messily. In the single-gunshot-heard-from-the-boardroom sense. The FSM knows that there are plenty of other grubby companies like Phorm out there and I want them to take note of what happens if they stick their filthy pseudopoda out of the primordial ooze where they dwell.

I thought you were talking about the musician at first.