Targeted ad app NebuAd may be illegal
p2pnet news | Advertising:- In Europe, Phorm has been condemned by the European Commission which strongly criticised what it called Phorm’s “covert trials”.
The company uses DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), “an almost harmless seeming term which in Canada is being forcefully thrust into public attention by the Bell Canada throttling scandal,” p2pnet posted a while back, continuing, DPI (and filtering), “enables advanced security functions as well as internet data mining, eavesdropping, censorship, etc,” says the Wikipedia.
In North America, NebuAd has been tested or implemented by more than a dozen ISPs, PC World has Robert Topolski, technical consultant for Public Knowledge, saying.
The so-called targeted ad program, tested but not used by Charter Communications in the US and Nexicom in Canada, may violate US federal and state wiretap laws, the CDT (Center for Democracy and Technology) and Public Knowledge say in a memo, says the story, going on >>>
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) could allow ISPs to monitor customers’ Internet traffic, with consent from customers, but the law suggests the consent should be active, not buried in a terms of service agreement or a billing statement, said CDT Vice President Ari Schwartz. Several state laws require affirmative consent from all affected parties, in the case of the NebuAd program, both ISP subscribers and the owners of the Web sites they visit, Schwartz added.
The NebuAd program requires ISP subscribers to opt out of having their data collected. Objections to the program gained momentum after Charter announced in May it was testing the NebuAd service. Charter announced in late June it had suspended the program, citing subscriber privacy concerns.
Public Knowledge and Free Press published a report in June accusing NebuAd of using several common Internet attacks to get information on users’ Web surfing habits, says PC World, stating >>>
The report said NebuAd hijacks browsers, employs man-in-the-middle attacks and uses packet forgery to get information from users and deliver ads.
NebuAd has denied using such tactics, saying it uses “industry-standard techniques for standard ad serving purposes.”
NebuAd, meanwhile, says it is offering a new “opt-out program” which’ll, “give consumers periodic reminders that they are enrolled in the ad system”.
In other words, unless subscribers go through the rigmarole of specifically saying they don’t want to be involved, they’re involved —- like it or not.
“NebuAd’s service is designed so that no one - not even the government - can determine the identity of our users,” the story quotes company spokeswoman Janet McGraw as saying.
But, “By tracking Web surfing habits, it would be easy for NebuAd to identify users, CDT and Public Knowledge officials countered,” calling on Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to make rules addressing behavioral advertising programs operated by ISPs.
.
.Stumble It!
strongly criticised - EC targets Phorm, May 27, 2008
p2pnet - Phorm and DPI: Alex Hanff, May 20, 2008
PC World - Groups: Targeted Ad Program May Be Illegal, July 8, 2008
Nexicom in Canada - Nexicom and NebuAd, July 7, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I actually didn’t realize this had already become an issue in Canada. I have been following the issue from a technical and privacy point of view through Steve Gibson’s excellent podcast, Security Now.
My article at:
http://securityviews.com/blog/2008/07/10/isp-clickstream-betrayal-part-2-the-double-reverse-masquerade/
…tries to summarize how the Phorm system works as described by Steve. It’s very scary that this could be allowed to take hold.
Thanks for the article.
Scott