Internet Watchdogs Attack NebuAd

Internet Watchdogs Attack NebuAd

gigaom.com

NebuAd provides a deep-packet inspection appliance that sits on the network of an ISP. The appliance tracks information about the type of sites a user visits and serves up ads against that information. The company got a lot of attention after Charter Communications signed a deal to test the technology.

....

One of the biggest issues with the technology highlighted in the report include a consumer’s inability to truly opt out of having his Internet communications intercepted.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Makes one wonder how many of these types of programs are already out there monitoring everyones activities without their knowledge.

Never mind being able to decide on your own where you wish to visit based on what you click but having someone monitor your transmission in detail?

gigaom.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

the sooner all ad companies admit that they're the scum of the earth,the better.


They think that it's perfectly fine to invade my personal property with their virus software,and spy on me? Well I say it effin well isn't. Oh no,how will I know what products i NEED to buy to survive in this materialist world??


**** OFF

advertising is one of the things that gets my heckles up so much,i could easily stab a baby deer in the eyes. That baby deer suffered because of advertising. Stop them now before more deers suffer needlesly!!

This reminds me of what a security guard does.. just watches and monitors activities until they call on authorities to take action.

Our products do not require ISPs to provide us with access to their records regarding end-users’ personal information. NebuAd delivers its services without collecting and using personally identifiable information such as the following:

Email Addresses
Names
Street Addresses
Telephone Numbers
Social Security Numbers ⁄ Social Insurance Numbers
Numbers associated with your health plan insurance or other coverage
Financial information, including credit card numbers, login IDs, passwords, or bank account numbers

They may not collect this information.. but may in fact re-direct it to another institution...

We will specifically not store or use any information relating to confidential medical information, racial or ethnic origins, religious beliefs, or sexuality which are tied to personally identifiable information (“sensitive personal information”).

Just being able to see this information is enough to not want them to access my packets of information. Not because I have something to hide.. but data mining is a HUGE busness.... they may not want this info.. but...

Information Sharing
While NebuAd does not require or process any end-user personally-identifiable information for the purpose of delivering advertisements, our partners may have different privacy practices than our own. We encourage you to read our partners’ individual privacy policies.

Occasionally, we may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information about end-users, such as the number of users who visited a certain website, or how many of them clicked on a particular advertisement. This information does not identify end-users individually.

We sometimes use third party contractors who may be given access to any information we have so they may perform tasks that might otherwise be done by our employees. These contractors, however, have no rights to use such information for purposes other than to perform services for us, and are required to hold such information in strict confidence.

We may also disclose information we have collected when we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to:

Satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request
Enforce applicable Terms of Services including investigation of potential violations thereof
Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues
Protect against imminent harm to and individual’s safety or rights
If NebuAd becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of a majority or all of its assets, any information we have collected may be one of the assets transferred.

Who would those other institutions be? And why would they want the information?

The information we collect is stored and processed on NebuAd’s servers in the United States. As a result, that information may be subject to access requests by governments, courts or law enforcement.

NebuAd Services Privacy Policy: US / Canada Version

I see.. so what do you do with the information you don't store but have access too?

I may trust this company if the owners and workers for this company where monks working from some monestry... but as it stands.. what someone does not know will not hurt them comes to mind..

Their policy tries to appease what this program will not do.. but it only goes so far. It's whats not spoken that bugs me.




[edit on 19-6-2008 by Willbert]

i really shouldn't read stuff like that when I'm trying to give up smoking. It infuriates me to my core.

AOL and Yahoo have been doing this for years. Many search engines do it also. Ever get an email that your freinds just forward without copy/pasteing the message. They get ALL those email addresses to play with and send spam. All of us have gotten mail from unknowns and wonder how they got your screen name and other personal tidbits in those emails to sell you something. Its rampant and all the pop up blockers and Malware won't stop it untill we as a whoile do something about it.
Zindo
PS most corporations sell your email addresses and makes a whole hell of alot of money. Oh and also. when you get those threatening emails that say simply forward this to 12 of your friends or your ears will turn green. Well theres always one name there that gets to sell those addresses.

[edit on 6/19/2008 by ZindoDoone]

NebuAd isn't the only software. From Wikipedia:

NebuAd is an online advertising company based in Redwood City, California, with offices in New York and London and is funded by the investment companies Sierra Ventures and Menlo Ventures. It is one of several companies developing behavioral targeting advertising systems, seeking deals with ISPs to enable them to analyse customer's websurfing habits in order to provide them with more relevant, micro-targeted advertising. Others include Phorm and Front Porch.

Originally posted by Willbert
Who would those other institutions be?

Here's a thread about a leaked test report from British Telecom using the Phorm software. They do have the ability to correlate their customer's IP addresses with other personal information.

British Telecom illegally intercepted and modified web pages, tracked users

reply to post by Willbert


Absolutely crazy.

ISPs have been using deep packet inspection firewalls for years as a money saving tool. Bandwidth costs money, so ISPs look at all the packets coming in and often push all data of a specified type (usually file sharing, streaming video etc..) down a much smaller virtual pipe than the main pipe the user is connected to. Ever wonder why at 'peak' hours sometimes streaming video seems quite stuttery, or peer to peer downloads are very slow - whilst normal surfing, email and http downloads are still quick - this is why. Often people think they are paying for 'unlimited' broadband, but this is simply not the case.

It amazes me that some ISPs have gone this one step further and are effectively selling your information. I don't think this has happened in the UK yet (i'd like to think that OFCOM would do it's job if it did).

Unfortunately, it is a sad fact that ANY information sent over the internet un-encrypted can be read by someone else (not just at your ISP) quite easily. If you don't see the little secure padlock icon in your browser when your transmitting data - that data can be sniffed.

-Asni
(ex-UK ISP Technical Support Engineer)

Here's something we should be very worried about. The main reason this stuck out was due to a few days ago when I barely heard about being banned from ISP's for illegal downloading..

I guess some companies are advertising their wares to others so that ISP's can't say they are unable to compy....


Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads


And in Canada.. they changed illegal downloading from $20,000 to $500. It was brought as to why lower the fine? In response .. they said that parents will be responsible for their kids and so hence the fine should reflect those who are being persecuted..


Tories eye $500 fine for illegal downloads


And some ask how can the police find you???

How do the police find out if you've been downloading & what are the fines??

......

Most people that download things here and there don't get caught. The people who do get caught are the ones that are sharing large amounts of songs's video etc.

How do the police find out

How wrong they are... They will be knocking on your doors soon enought.. at $500 a pop.. how can they not.. it will be just like handing out parking tickets...

Who gets to keep the fines??? If he authorities are making legislation and the fines.. who pockets the money is what I'm wondering?


[edit on 19-6-2008 by Willbert]

Who would go to the trouble to inform the authorities?

Q9. With these amendments, how will Canada compare with its international trading partners?

A. The bill will bring Canada in line with its G7 partners and most of the major economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and ensure that Canada's copyright protection will be among the strongest in the world. At the same time, several aspects of the bill are unique to Canada, such as the amendments that address the liability of ISPs and the specific exception for the educational use of publicly available Internet material.

....

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
Q10. Why did you choose to limit the liability of ISPs?

A. The government is of the view that those who post infringing material should be liable for copyright infringement and not those who enable access to, and use of, the Internet. Thus, to the extent that ISPs are only intermediaries that enable or facilitate connectivity, the bill clarifies that they are not liable. By providing this legal clarity for ISPs, this approach will continue to encourage the growth of Internet services in Canada.

Notwithstanding, ISPs will be required to discourage infringing uses of their facilities by participating in a "notice and notice" regime. Under this regime, an ISP will be required to forward any notice it receives from a copyright owner to a subscriber who is alleged to be engaging in infringing activities online. ISPs will also be required to retain a record containing the information that would allow the subscriber to be identified in any court proceedings that may ensue. This is important because ISPs are often the only parties that can identify and warn subscribers when they are being accused of infringing copyright. ISPs that fail to retain such records or to forward notices would be liable for civil damages. Under Canadian law, the courts have the ability to order that access to infringing material be blocked in appropriate cases.

Q11. Why has the government chosen a "notice and notice" approach rather than the U.S. "notice and takedown" approach for ISPs?

A. A "notice and takedown" regime typically requires an ISP to block access to material upon receiving a notice from a rights holder that alleges such material to be infringing. No court order is required. A drawback of "notice and takedown" is that it typically applies only to materials posted on websites. It is not well-suited to files shared on P2P networks, arguably the most prevalent source of infringing material, since the files are actually located on the computers of the persons engaged in sharing.

In contrast, the proposed "notice and notice" regime, which is current industry practice, better addresses P2P file sharing. A number of copyright owners who have used this regime have generally expressed satisfaction with the effectiveness of the approach.

Questions and Answers Amendments to the Copyright Act

en.wikipedia.org... This is highly illigal.

Today this was on Dutch news they call upon every user of KPN to sue them. They see everything you do.


news.google.nl...:nlfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&hl=nl&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&ie=UTF-8&ncl=dpUkaFjH5dg z4qM76SjVuLSVS37DM&ei=JebMTZ7HEIfsObK1iIwN&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQqgIwAA

Just saying, we are being monitored to the very tik on the keyboard