Parliament has formed a new group to investigate internet traffic issues and Phorm wants to make it clear that it welcomes the chance to convince more people about the merits of its behavioural advertising system.
Formerly formed yesterday, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Communications will look into internet traffic issues including behavioural advertising, privacy, child abuse and internet neutrality, in order to decide how the government should regulate internet service providers (ISPs).
"Recent technical advances are beginning to make it practical to inspect internet traffic bad' traffic might then be blocked; bulk' traffic might then be slowed; wicked' traffic detected and crimes investigated; or personal profiles could be built to better target advertising," the group wrote on its site.
"Opinions differ very widely as to which of these activities should be forbidden, which should be insisted upon, which raise insurmountable privacy issues, and which should be left to the marketplace to determine whether the idea is viable," it added.
Phorm has been one source of controversy in this area, with its deep packet inspection system scanning traffic to better display advertising.
The company has so far trialled its system with BT, which has lead to privacy concerns. The European Union has taken legal action against the UK over Phorm, while Amazon and the Wikimedia Foundation have asked to be removed from the system, but ISPs seem to be hanging in there.
Regarding the new comms investigation group, Phorm said: "We welcome the decision by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communication to examine internet traffic. We look forward to working with the Group, some of whose members we have met in the last year."
"In those meetings and going forward we will be happy to explain the enormous potential of Phorm's internet advertising service with its industry leading privacy standards," it added in a statement.
The comms group will be taking submissions on the issues until 22 May, with a final report due in the autumn.
