topic Re: Question about O2 and age verification in Discussions & Feedback

Discussions about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:17:01 GMT

Just received a text from TPTB saying I need to confirm I'm over 18 to view adult material. Until then, it'll remain blocked on my phone. I don't have a credit card so I'll need to do this in store. Just wondering, I have no particular desire to view pornographic material or register to flirt websites on my phone but if I don't have this ban lifted, will it affect my general day-to-day browsing in any way? Otherwise, I won't bother.
Secondly, when did this come about? Never needed to confirm my age in the past. And why couldn't they have sorted this in store when I bought the phone?

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:50:43 GMT

I too received the

"O2: You'll need to prove you're over 18 to go on 18 websites on your mobile. Call our free automated service 61018 or go to http://o2.co.uk/ageverify . You'll need a credit card"

text message. Initially thought it was spam, then noticed that the website URL looked legitimate.
Although I've no desire to see the website, I couldn't help but wonder which website the 18 referenced were.
Saying that, looking at tweets on the subject, it looks like their site categorisation software / database is as credible as most other net nanny sites... so expect them to junk it as a bad idea sometime soon, before the derision becomes to much for their social media monitors and marketing guys to cope with.
Edit - out of curiosity, I peaked at o2.co.uk/ageverify and saw
"Sorry, we’re having technical problems so we can’t check your age and mobile number." bwhaaaaa

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:11:02 GMT

This just gets better and better....
From http://www.o2.co.uk/support/generalhelp/howdoi/safetycontrolandaccess/blockunblock

The first time you use a credit card to prove to us that you are 18 or older we will charge £1 to your credit card and credit £2.50 to your mobile account. Please note that each time you verify your age, your credit card will be charged £1. You will only receive £2.50 credit when you use this service for the first time.

How many times are they expecting customers to verify their age?
Is this really a free money scheme for customers (put a pound in, get two pounds fifty out) or will they keep card details and automatically bill each time (scary) ?
Out of curiosity, and for the first time (I should add) - I disabled wifi, allowed the mobile data connection and dialled up a naughty site in browser.
That, after a long wait, redirected me to https://bango.net/O2AV/wAV.aspx?httpsRedirect=1 (thus keeping my cache unsullied)
I find myself wondering if this is a poacher pretending to be a gamekeeper.
Bango.Net (source http://sitetrail.com/bango.net is a Cambridge based mobile billing company... provider of billing solutions for, yup, you guessed it....
take a peak at this 2003 article
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1022040/sex-wire-initiative-hits-problems
and, if your in the wireless mobile adult services industry, they are probably good guys to know.
There was also a bit of fiasco with O2, Orange and Bango back in 2005...
More background from
http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/articles/company-information/bango-plc/
Enough... remember, folks, Google is your friend

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:15:39 GMT

Wait. Why does that link take you to bango.net? Is this a site endorsed by O2? I'd feel very uncomfortable offering credit card details to any site with "bango" in the URL!
Anyone confirm if this is genuine or a scam?

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:44:03 GMT

O2 do seem to have used bango. I personally find it disconcerting that O2 are using this company.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:48:10 GMT

If you go to http://www.banjo.net, you find yourself on Rik Palieri's (pronounced Pal-air-re) website - which is rather cool if you're into American folks music.
I made the same transposition of "g" and "j" on a tweet (twice) just recently :robotsurprised:
I think, given O2's long history with Bango, it's genuine.
I also think it's spam designed to generate revenue.
Of particular interest, from the Bango billing link, was
"Bill on all operators and connections, even Wi-Fi" - time to rigorously monitor our smartphones for trojan like behaviour from our beloved phone operators and those they are in bed with perhaps?
I would never ever ever give my credit card details though...
My biggest concern is that, given the typically questionable categorisation of websites, people will be duped into registering as over 18 to visit, say, a BBC page which has been miss-categorised, opening up multiple billing opportunities.

I don't see this ending well for O2

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:14:27 GMT

I'm going to follow this up. If I find anything I'll post back.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 23:04:12 GMT

This is BEYOND a joke! I cannot even access http://translate.google.com without it auto-forwarding to bango.net
#### O2!! This is ridiculous! What are you trying to achieve with this?

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:55:52 GMT

This is BEYOND a joke! I cannot even access http://translate.google.com without it auto-forwarding to bango.net
#### O2!! This is ridiculous! What are you trying to achieve with this?

It's automated software that's been put in place to prevent youngsters from seeing what they shouldn't. I don't know why you're getting so would up over it.
If you don't have a credit card and aren't going past a shop any time soon then call 202 and ask them to complete their age verification form, it'll have the content filter lifted within, off the top of my head, 48 hours.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:27:09 GMT

This is BEYOND a joke! I cannot even access http://translate.google.com without it auto-forwarding to bango.net
#### O2!! This is ridiculous! What are you trying to achieve with this?

It's automated software that's been put in place to prevent youngsters from seeing what they shouldn't. I don't know why you're getting so would up over it.
If you don't have a credit card and aren't going past a shop any time soon then call 202 and ask them to complete their age verification form, it'll have the content filter lifted within, off the top of my head, 48 hours.

Yeah, because youngsters having access to Google Translate is potentially cataclysmic!!!
I'm wound up because I pay extra for internet on my phone and at the moment, I'm unable to perform basic day-to-day tasks because their categorisation of websites is ruddy bonkers.
No, ringing 202 won't work. You need to do it either online with a credit card or instore with ID. Which means I have to jump on the bus, purchase a £5 fayre just to confirm my age to O2, something they could have done 2 weeks ago when I bought the phone.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:48:59 GMT

@canwefixit, I think you've rather missed the point.
No-one would complain if it was a one off verification for sites that host inappropriate content.
However:
The verification is repeatedly coming up when its already been done. And charging £1 a time which is a nice little earner for someone.
There are reports that customers are being directly texted about this.
Bango also appear to be monitoring sites visited for customer profiling purposes. Which are apparently anonymised.
The process causes the errors . . . .Interrupted by host and Sorry! which people have been complaining about.
Having said that, apparently you can opt-out of this monitoring by giving notice.
I think if O2 were open about this and say explicitly what they are doing and how much personally identifiable data is being shared with bango. We could make a judgement as to whether to continue with using the services.
As it stands its very difficult to find out what's happening as few people, even in O2, seem to have the full details.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:13:00 GMT

got the text message this morning
and i have been getting "Interrupted by host" errors when trying to use the internet even to places like google.com, i have no intention of spending time and money to prove to O2 how old i am they already have my credit card details and put me through a credit check before accepting my contract but if it continues to stop me getting to the most basic website O2 can stick their contract where the sun dont shine!

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:46:56 GMT

There's a cross topic post on the Pay Monthly forum viewtopic.php?p=324412
This is the Bango Customer Service Blog http://bangoserviceblog.wordpress.com/
From which you can see that people are being, err, duped
http://bangoserviceblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/o2-conversion-rate-increases-over-6-with-bango/
And that they've got some internal compitence issues
http://bangoserviceblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/bango-analytics-disruption-12/ which may go some way to explaining the absurd site categorisation (or is that a cyncial marketing trick? )
This is the Bango Customer Forums (so you can see more of the kind of thing they do) http://forums.bango.com/
I think I'll phone O2 Customer Services and ask them if they have my birth date on file (they do through both contract application and credit checks on application) and then issue complaint for data collection abuse (because they know - Age Verification is not what it implies) and ask them to block analytics relating to my data from Bango.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 13:30:36 GMT

Phone call was a bit of a farce. Oh Dear....
Concluded my lunch break by reading through O2's privacy, disclosure and associated policies.
http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/o2privacypolicy# (or look for google cache if it changes).
No obvious mention of distribution of detailed web analytics to a third party billing company

Date and time of log-in and log-off of our Internet access service, IP address and user ID of the subscriber

, nor what responsiblity O2 have for those third parties use of data, etc... Worth reading and speculating about UK, EU and International law on use and distribution of data.
Also worth noting for those who do want to visit mucky sites (other than translate.google.com ) that the condition

to third parties for checking details of job applicants and employees;

may help you to `keep your souls intact`

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

perksie — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 15:44:28 GMT

I too received the
"O2: You'll need to prove you're over 18 to go on 18 websites on your mobile. Call our free automated service 61018 or go to http://o2.co.uk/ageverify . You'll need a credit card"

text message. Initially thought it was spam, then noticed that the website URL looked legitimate.
Although I've no desire to see the website, I couldn't help but wonder which website the 18 referenced were.
Saying that, looking at tweets on the subject, it looks like their site categorisation software / database is as credible as most other net nanny sites... so expect them to junk it as a bad idea sometime soon, before the derision becomes to much for their social media monitors and marketing guys to cope with.
Edit - out of curiosity, I peaked at o2.co.uk/ageverify and saw
"Sorry, we’re having technical problems so we can’t check your age and mobile number." bwhaaaaa

You can also do it here, which does seem to work:
https://ageverification.o2.co.uk/
The "Bango" link doesn't work for me either.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:40:16 GMT

I believe the URL they send via sms only works with mobile web on your phone not through your computer's browser. (MSISDN)
Just wondering, they charge £1 to your credit card but reimburse £2.50 as phone credit? Yeah, that's fantastic if you're on pay as you go but what about contract customers?
Also, don't you have to be 18+ to take out a phone contract? Shouldn't this be enough for O2 to verify our ages?

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:14:03 GMT

Hi all
I'm looking into the concerns you've raised in more detail and will come back to you with a reply tomorrow.
Thanks
Chris

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:33:31 GMT

This is BEYOND a joke! I cannot even access http://translate.google.com without it auto-forwarding to bango.net
#### O2!! This is ridiculous! What are you trying to achieve with this?

It's automated software that's been put in place to prevent youngsters from seeing what they shouldn't. I don't know why you're getting so would up over it.
If you don't have a credit card and aren't going past a shop any time soon then call 202 and ask them to complete their age verification form, it'll have the content filter lifted within, off the top of my head, 48 hours.

No, ringing 202 won't work. You need to do it either online with a credit card or instore with ID. Which means I have to jump on the bus, purchase a £5 fayre just to confirm my age to O2, something they could have done 2 weeks ago when I bought the phone.

Actually, as I've already said, it can be done by customer services.

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

jonsie — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:49:58 GMT

Hi all
I'm looking into the concerns you've raised in more detail and will come back to you with a reply tomorrow.
Thanks
Chris

Waiting with interest Chris, as I too have received the message this afternoon.
This all seems a little pointless when your date of birth is stated on your personal details on 'my o2'
This really concerns me!
@ canwefixit
I presume you still have to give a credit card number?

Re: Question about O2 and age verification

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:32:26 GMT

Hi all
I'm looking into the concerns you've raised in more detail and will come back to you with a reply tomorrow.
Thanks
Chris

Waiting with interest Chris, as I too have received the message this afternoon.
This all seems a little pointless when your date of birth is stated on your personal details on 'my o2'
This really concerns me!
@ canwefixit
I presume you still have to give a credit card number?

Not at all it's basically the account info, date of birth and what the customer wants access to.