p2pnet news view | Advertising:- Yesterday, “NebuAd Bites the Dust Gigaom, was the lead item in the p2pnet World Headlines Roundup.

Has it really?

Or has it simply re-branded?

In September last year “It looks as though US privacy pirate NebuAd’s DPI system is to be deep-sixed,” said p2pnet, going on:

“The question is: will it disappear permanently? Or will it resurface disguised as a ‘harmless’ technology of some kind?

“Online public pressure  has forced the company to put a stop to deploying its deep packet inspection (DPI) ad-spy application, which relentlessly tracks people as they move around the Net.”

Now, “NebuAd, the company that planned to enable Internet Service Providers to offer behavioral advertising based on a person’s web surfing history, has shut its doors, according to MediaPost (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=106277), which cites court documents,” says Gigaom.

“The controversial service, which is akin to Phorm in the UK, had conducted advertising trials with several U.S. ISP including Cable One and CenturyTel. When it signed up Charter as a customer last summer, a backlash ensued that led to a congressional investigation into such targeted advertising and the refocusing of the company.”

(For anyone just tuning in, in the Phorm Pharce, the UK government, which was once behind the company, run by spyware pioneer and privacy pirate Kent Ertugrul, is now consequently in deep trouble with the European Commission.)

Now, “News hit the press yesterday that NebuAd (the US company that is remarkably similar to Phorm) was shutting down,” posts anti-Phorm activist Alex Hanff on his NoDPI webs site, going on »»»

This is allegedly down to them effectively being destroyed by US Congress last year when news of their DoPI based systems was questioned by Congressman Ed Markey who then went on to lead congressional hearings on the issue.  The result was all NebuAds ISP partners dropped them and did so remarkably quickly, forcing NebuAd to shed staff and as of yesterday close up shop.

NebuAd did however open an office in the UK last year and it seems they have now moved their operations here and rebranded as Insight Ready Ltd.  The company details are still scarce with what appears to be a “place holder” (probably someone from specialist company registration firm) Director and currently no listed company secretary.  But it wasn’t too difficult to figure out who they really are.  NebuAd’s old phone number gets answered by Insight Ready and NebuAd were branding their product “Insight” last autumn (see here).

This will come as no surprise to most as we certainly expected NebuAd to rebrand and relaunch in an attempt to shed their tarnished reputation – but what is a concern is that it is very clear the UK has become a safe haven for corporations with a desire to prey on people’s personal and private data.

With regulatory capture rotting away the core of our political system, Privacy laws which are the subject of EU legal action against the UK, a Government who seem hell bent on setting the global standards for being a police and surveillance state and a lack of technical expertise in the public bodies which are supposed to deal with online privacy issues – we are likely to see more and more of these unethical corporations planting their roots here in the future.

Nice try NebuAd but you really made it very easy for us to uncover your plans – you should have at least had the old NebuAd phone number changed for the new company and chosen a name which you had not already promoted 8 months previously.

[UPDATE]

Just to reassure anyone who thinks this is all a coincidence and that Insight Ready are not NebuAd reborn – if you phone NebuAd’s UK number after business hours it goes through to the voicemail of NebuAd’s Commercial Director, Tony Evans.  If you phone during business hours, the call is answered by Insight Ready Ltd.

If anyone is still not convinced take a look at this:

whois insightready.co.uk

Domain name:
insightready.co.uk

Registrant:
nebuAD

Both InsightReady.com and InsightReady.co.uk point to the same web site.

Stay tuned.

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p2pnet – Nebuad suspends ad-spy technology, September 4, 2008
spyware pioneer – ISP data deal with former ’spyware’ boss triggers privacy fears, February 25, 2008
Phorm Pharce – Phorm Storm: Ertugrul speaks, May 5, 2009
deep trouble – EC goes after Britain over Phorm DPI, April 14, 2009
NoDPI – NebuAd pull a fast one!, May 19, 2009