Discussions about O2 and age verification

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Just called Customer Services about this and according to the guy on the other end they can only remove the age restriction if you have a contract.
While I was there I complained about them supplying personal information to a third party and then asking me to pay this third party, whom I'd never herd of (and took to be a phishing scam the first time I saw it), over an unsecure connection. The reply from the customer service guy was that this age verification was recently required of by all phone operators and that O2 had to do it. He said that Bango was the only company able to do this age verification and that they were required BY LAW to provide personal information and information about my browsing history to them! Can someone confirm if this is the case or if it's just some BS by someone from customer services who doesn't know what he's talking about. I've heard some people on here saying that providing this kind of information without informing us is a violation of the terms of service. Not sure how true that is but if so who can I complain to about this?
H

[Anonymous]

May be "true" that "all operators have to do it".
"Bango is the only company who can do it for O2" (I paraphrase) -- it is O2's decision to sub-contract that service to Bango. O2 could, and should, provide an alternative. And in any case, "over an unsecure connection" -- O2, be serious.
"Required by law to provide browsing history to them" -- well yes the ISP is (probably) compelled by law to remember the URL of every page you have visited (over a period of perhaps a year), and to provide that information to the state/government/police on request (I don't think the authorities need a search warrant). That requirement doesn't mean that O2 must provide specifically Bango with the page-by-page information.
I too was entirely unhappy about an apparent phishing scam from a third party. bango.net, which used the O2 logo, and appeared to promise that "O2 will not share your credit card details with a third party".
(I suspect that some of my emails to professional acquaintances, to ask for their opinions on this situation, have been censored by their companies' internal email systems, on the grounds that Bango is clearly slang for a certain illegal substance.)
"Providing details" -- sorry herriott1101, the ISP recording URL details is probably legal and probably required by law: but I cannot accept O2's attempt to make me give credit card details to a third party, and I don't trust Bango anyway.
Digressing slightly -- I note that one of the MPs who was most vociferous in demanding this sort of check was the former MP for Luton South. Speaking in the House of Commons, she described how she had set up various "test purchases" in which a teenager was able to, among other transactions, purchase knives from tesco.com. The MP, properly, argued that "what is illegal in the high street is illegal on-line". So far as I am aware, tesco.com has not been barred from mobile devices in the scheme we are now discussing: and certainly, tesco.com is still available on landline and wi-fi. I ask: how has the problem identified by that MP been solved (hardly at all, I say). I also note: that particular MP was barred from standing at the last general election, on grounds of alleged serious financial irregularities concerning her expenses claims. Oh dear. If the expenses scandal had broken a year earlier, we might all have been spared this particular mess.

[Anonymous]

It's all a load of bum guff
Oh and 3 announced they are dropping theirs:
http://blog.three.co.uk/2011/03/18/easi ... #more-1895

[Anonymous]

just a note to the interested. 3 have announced they are dropping their content filter for all contract customers.
head over to their blog if you need more details. A gauntlet for O2 to pickup I hope.

[Anonymous]

O2 Hell beat me to it.
I see you're looking for info on the filter..., I wouldn't hold you're breath. MODS over there never give specifics that can be proven wrong later! It gets a bit frustrating.
All I can tell you is its been in place as long as I've been a 3 customer (1 year).

[Anonymous]

"Required by law to provide browsing history to them" -- well yes the ISP is (probably) compelled by law to remember the URL of every page you have visited (over a period of perhaps a year), and to provide that information to the state/government/police on request (I don't think the authorities need a search warrant).

This is incorrect
The Digital Communications Bill was defeated in the House of Commons in August 2010
As a result, your ISP does not have to keep any of your browsing history unless they want to
They do keep your phone calls and texts though for 12 months and have been doing so since October 2007 so you were half right

[Anonymous]

Useful Info

Thanks matey, just asked them to delete my posts

[Anonymous]

"Required by law to provide browsing history to them" -- well yes the ISP is (probably) compelled by law to remember the URL of every page you have visited (over a period of perhaps a year), and to provide that information to the state/government/police on request (I don't think the authorities need a search warrant).

This is incorrect
The Digital Communications Bill was defeated in the House of Commons in August 2010
As a result, your ISP does not have to keep any of your browsing history unless they want to
They do keep your phone calls and texts though for 12 months and have been doing so since October 2007 so you were half right

Fair enough, I wasn't paying proper attention to the progress of the Digital Communications Bill at the time (though I did think it would end in tears).
QUESTION: does O2, or Bango on its behalf, actually record and keep our URLs visited (though not actually required to do so by law)????? For how long?? Where do they record / keep the info -- within the EU or in USA?? (Not that I am in any way ashamed of the pages I visit.)
I think we should be told.

[perksie]

Many of those questions have already been answered by Chris@O2 in this thread, Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:42 pm.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone confirmed anywhere what Bango get out of all this then?
I mean, if O2 are paying their customers (and as stated by them on twitter, they are making a loss) for every transaction then are they paying Bango for their involvement?
If not, are Bango a registered charity with volunteers?
Given the amount of people they pissed off with it, the fact they appear to have not notified anyone of the scheme (including most of their staff) and the about turn they are going to have to make given Three's announcement, where is the business logic here?
It's all a bit fishy isn't it?