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NebuAD CEO Gets Out While Getting Is Good
While company insists they're moving forward...
Just yesterday the Associated Press surveyed the state of NebuAD, the behavioral advertising agency whose entire client base essentially walked away once Congress began investigating the privacy ramifications of buying user browsing data from ISPs. Now it appears that NebuAD CEO Bob Dykes (whom we interviewed back in February) has left NebuAD to take a new job at Verifone, which suggests that even the company's top dog wasn't optimistic that the company would be turning things around. The company is suggesting things are business as usual, though they hint they may be pursuing more traditional revenue options (aka ones Congress isn't currently investigating).
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88

Member

golden parachute

Someone took a ride on the golden parachute before the court freezes assets.
Typhoon1k
join:2008-04-27
San Antonio, TX

Typhoon1k

Member

Titanic Move

Hitching a ride before it hits an Ice Berg.

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium Member
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

newview

Premium Member

. . . and now Verifone is suspect

Any company who hires a former CEO of a company embroiled in privacy data shenanigans should be viewed with suspicion.
goahead
join:2008-09-03

goahead

Member

Re: . . . and now Verifone is suspect

That company shold have been destroyed a long time ago.

fcisler
Premium Member
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY

fcisler

Premium Member

Wrong Sector of Business

NebuAD obviously has built a decent product and solid hardware - I haven't heard of many large issues from ISP's in dealing with there hardware.

Put the privacy/tracking issues aside for now.

I think they are catering to the wrong markets. Take that same technology, put it in a business/government...it could be a good thing. Instead of inserting ads, modify it to a "get back to work" or something similar. Modify it to keep track of the users. You "working", so it's not your PC and you business is paying you.

How about something like selling it to a newspaper company. Add buttons like "Flag This" "blatant copy" "link to our site". Researchers can flag a page so that someone can follow up with it. Not the best example.

Either way, I think their base technology could be extended to put them in a spot where congress isn't on their a**.

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

1 edit

funchords

MVM

Re: Wrong Sector of Business

A quick disagreement and then I'll agree with the rest.

NebuAd generally didn't insert ads (except in one known case, a brief trial with Redmoon). And NebuAd's hardware was Juniper. As for the "obviously built a decent product," I'll have to ask you for any data useful to reach any conclusion on their product quality.
said by fcisler:

Take that same technology, put it in a business/government...it could be a good thing. Instead of inserting ads, modify it to a "get back to work" or something similar. Modify it to keep track of the users. You "working", so it's not your PC and you business is paying you.

How about something like selling it to a newspaper company. Add buttons like "Flag This" "blatant copy" "link to our site". Researchers can flag a page so that someone can follow up with it. Not the best example.

Either way, I think their base technology could be extended to put them in a spot where congress isn't on their a**.
I think that this is brilliant thinking. And given that users working on a project often will use their Intranet and Internet access for similar purposes, I wonder if such a device might help businesses build better group intelligence about their products and projects.

It would also help drive good use of work connections for work because the data that they transact over their work computers is ultimately shared back within their own projects.

(And while that sounds unattractive, those are the facts. What makes employees mad is the sense of privacy being violated. If there is no privacy in the first place, there is no sense of surprising loss when it is violated. And if the company does want to offer a little unmonitored access for good employee-relations and morale purposes, it can provide VPN proxies that would not be subject to monitoring. Plus, I don't think employees would be as negative about employer monitoring if the monitoring was done for a productive purpose and that they can immediately see the results of it.)

I think you've got a good idea.

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

Snowy

Premium Member

Re: Wrong Sector of Business

said by funchords:

I think you've got a good idea.
The first thing they would need to do is change their name from "NebuAd" to "Watch-U-Work".

fcisler
Premium Member
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY

fcisler to funchords

Premium Member

to funchords
I didn't realize the hardware was Juniper based. As for my quote, I was referring to the fact that I haven't read or heard of any "NebuAd want down and now I can't browse"....it was a general assumption on my part. Conversely, We have a McAfee Spam Appliance that randomly likes to drop connections and do other odd things....I was basing a "decent product" on the lack of complaints (other than privacy!!) about the hardware/software failing and locking users out.