Net spy firm NebuAd sued
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Early in the year, dslreports interviewed NebuAD CEO Bob Dykes, “who hoped to buy your browsing history from ISPs, then deliver ads based on your browsing choices”.
Now, “Unfortunately for NebuAD, Congressional questions arose over whether NebuAD’s deep packet inspection system violated privacy and wiretap laws, which resulted in ISPs running to the hills to protect their legal posteriors, says dslreports in a new story, going on »»»
That led to the departure of NebuAD’s CEO, and left the company on life support. All in all that’s a pretty crappy year for one company, but unfortunately for them things just got worse with the birth of a class action lawsuit.
The suit names several Internet Service Providers, including Washington Post-owned Cable One, which used Nebuad on a trial basis but ultimately did not deploy the technology throughout its network … The suit alleges violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, California’s Invasion of Privacy Act and California’s Computer Crime Law, as well as aiding and abetting, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment.
NebuAD was always in a tough spot, given how their opt-out system let consumers opt-out of targeted ads, but not browsing data collection. If you’re a huge fan of advertising and having your every click monetized don’t worry. There’s a multitude of other operators planning on copying NebuAD’s business model, just as soon as the appropriate politicians are lobbied and privacy laws are weakened or changed. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be a technology pioneer.
Fifteen customers are demanding more than $5 million in damages and want the case turned into a class action, “representing tens of thousands of Internet subscribers,” says the Associated Press, going on:
” ‘Like a vacuum cleaner, everything passing through the pipe of the consumers’ Internet connection was sucked up, copied and forwarded,’ stated the lawsuit, which accuses NebuAd and the ISPs of breaking federal and state privacy laws.
Several U.S. ISPs tried the technology before withdrawing as privacy advocates and members of Congress raised concerns over the summer.
The six ISPs named in the lawsuit each told Congress over the summer that it had dropped NebuAd’s technology after only a few months. The ISPs are: Bresnan Communications LLC, Cable One Inc., CenturyTel Inc., Embarq Corp., WideOpenWest and Knology Inc.
Stay tuned.
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dslreports - What Is NebuAD?,February 12, 2008
dslreports – NebuAD, Several ISPs Sued Over Behavioral Ads, November 14, 2008
Associated Press – Web tracker NebuAd sued over privacy claims, November 13, 2008
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