About mADSLax

mADSLax was set up in response to the spreading use of customer profiling by the UK ISPs. No spyware / adware here.

In Febraury 2008 it was announced that British Telecom, TalkTalk and Virgin Media had signed up with Phorm to provide tracking facilities within the ISP networks which would allow the surfer's interests to be logged in order to provide better targeted adverts.

Previously profiling had been limited to smaller ISPs offering discounted broadband or free services like wi-fi hotspots which are funded by the advertising displayed to users.

Now the behavioural targeting of advertisements is being offered to 70% of the users of the internet in the UK. Do you want to give away your personal data to some 3rd party with whom you have no contract? Even Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the invertor of the internet, said that he would change ISP rather than let his surfing data be used in this way.

ISPs to Spy on Customers !

It makes a great heading. The implications for invasion of privacy are beyond comprehension. The story goes that the ISPs have such a bad business model that the only way they can continue to invest in and provide broadband services is by teaming up with an advertising network. The idea is that the [choose your own word here] adware / spyware / rootkit program is hosted within the ISP's network and the ISP earns revenue from advertisements displayed on 3rd party sites.

As the adverts are being displayed to a highly targeted audience, the advertising real estate can be sold at a premium thereby earning a higher return than would be possible with the traditional advertising networks. And, how do they find this highly targeted audience? — by copying and analysing every web page you visit, recording the advertising 'channel' for every page visit and then matching adverts to the highest paying advertiser for one of those channels. A win-win situation: except for the person who is having their every page and site visit spied upon to create a profile which can be matched against current advertisers.

Previously, programs written by Phorm under their earlier trading name of 121Media could be detected by security and anit-spyware programs and removed from your computer. By hosting the latest incarnation of these same programs within the ISP's networks it is impossible for locally hosted programs to detect the adware / spyware and prevent it from invading your privacy and displaying targeted adverts.

Privacy or Cheap Broadband?

It is your choice. mADSLax's webmaster has used the same ADSL supplier since upgrading from dial-up. First as a customer of an ISP who resold the Griffin service under their label. When the ISP changed ADSL supplier, signing up direct with Griffin. Griffin respect your privacy and honour their role of conduit only to your internet traffic.

Who are Griffin? Why have I not heard of them before?

Griffin started building their ISP service for the East Midlands in 1995 and are now one of the major suppliers of broadband services. Griffin owns and manages its own national MPLS IP network, used solely for business use and guarantees the highest service levels in the industry. Marketing is through over 70 partners selling the services under their own ISP label plus many resellers. mADSLax is a reseller who enables you to sign direct with Griffin, giving you direct access to support and technical assistance.

The Small Print

mADSLax is part of the MOREdial group of websites providing international telecom services to land line and mobile customers and internet services to businesses.

VAT No: 814 6580 25

DPA Registration No: Z9805291

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Premium ADSL service

Quite simply, the best ADSL service available.

The Acceptable Use Policy is one of the fairest available: exceed 50 GB per month and you can either move to SDSL where available or be resticted to 50:1 contention during business hours, 8 am to 6 pm; exceed 100 GB per month and be restricted to 50:1 contention 24/7/365 or move to SDSL where available.

This compares against many low cost suppliers who work on 100:1 contention for all customers and offer a service slower than dial-up during peak times.

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