Ok, So NebuAD Isn't Really Dead They've just changed shape, taken aim at UK... Tipped by KrK 
Shortly after we got done earlier this week writing about how behavioral ad firm NebuAD was officially dead, several of our readers in the UK wrote in to note that this wasn't entirely true. NebuAD has simply been reconstituted into a new company by the name of Insight Ready, who'll focus on advertising in the UK, where pesky consumer privacy and wiretap laws don't stand in the way of snoopy ambitions. NebuAD is still facing lawsuits in the U.S., and we've got a new FTC chief who seems to be talking tough about making all such systems "opt in" by law.
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 | | A quick slide of the hand and you have... the new and improved Nebu. their reputation will be a ball and chain! | |
|  |  major marcoRes Firma Mitescere NescitPremium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA | Re: A quick slide of the hand and you have... said by S_engineer:the new and improved Nebu. their reputation will be a ball and chain! Not necessarily. Consumer memory is short. Very short. Which is what allows these corporate douchebags to reassemble themselves. Cases in point: Despite major PR nightmares from privacy advocates back in '96 and '99, respectively, both Doubleclick and ChoicePoint both managed to turn explosve diarheaa into lemonade.
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The Toll
Tracking Lord Stanley
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| | |  SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA | Re: A quick slide of the hand and you have... Xe, Wachovia, AIU anyone? | |
| | | DesdinovaPremium
join:2003-01-26
Gaithersburg, MD | "...turn explosve diarheaa into lemonade."
Okay, I seriously had to laugh out loud while cringing at the image. Truly a masterful combination of repulsion/attraction!  | |
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|  knightmbEverybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN | said by S_engineer:the new and improved Nebu. their reputation will be a ball and chain! I was about ready to dump my sig, guess it needs to stay then. 
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Fight Insight Ready (Was NebuAD) and the like:
Click Here to pollute their data | |
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 swhx7Premium
join:2006-07-23
Elbonia | More information on the revamped co. This article: »www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/20···_nebuad/ says that the new company will be in the business of building profiles of web surfers by means of "web bugs" in web pages, rather than by trying to intercept users' traffic at the ISP.
As you may know, the "web bugs" are small image in pages. They are hosted on third-party servers, so those servers get hits when the pages are loaded (when the user doesn't have any sort of blocking in place). The third party's server logs then accumulate the surfers' IP addresses. Combine this with giving the image files unique names in the tags on the pages, and you have a tracking mechanism.
Of course this is old-school in the history of web advertising. But it's usually been done directly as part of advertising packages. The new twist seems to be that this company will be spying on users in this way to accumulate data on visitors to the sites, even if there aren't ads on the page. This data then will be sold to advertisers.
It's less evil than intercepting all your data at the ISP. And it's easy to block if you know how - just google "web bug". | |
| | | nebuad aka phoenix anyone have any thoughts on these issues:
1) what if the wireLINE isp of the user was imbedding the cookies and not the 3p wireline isps? Of course for PR sake you claim that the system you are using is not the same as that which caused prior issues. why would any entity digress, and use technology concept that is dated when first party isps are willing to allow such associations.
2) what if this system was used on a wireLESS isp system, let's say at a coffee shop for ie. Could the browser on the page loading be slow b/c it is embedding a similar cookie? Could the isp, that is acting as a search engine, claiming to be an advertiser or publisher, not be embedding cookies within an adnetwork, but be doing so at the point of entry in the search area on the page?
ideas/thoughts | |
| |  funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5
1 edit | Re: nebuad aka phoenix said by interested party :
anyone have any thoughts on these issues:
1) what if the wireLINE isp of the user was imbedding the cookies and not the 3p wireline isps? Of course for PR sake you claim that the system you are using is not the same as that which caused prior issues. why would any entity digress, and use technology concept that is dated when first party isps are willing to allow such associations.
If, for example, Charter was actually interfering or simply eavesdropping the connection instead of Charter's vendor, NebuAd, it's still a wiretap either way. The wiretap act doesn't allow your phone company to tap your line for marketing purposes or any other purposes, outside of quality measurement/maintenance and in accordance with a lawful order of government.
I'm very keen on watching "Canoe Ventures" develop. Right now, they haven't crossed that line into using your surfing habits to determine what commercials to send to your TV's set top box. But I'm very certain that's why Charter was keen to take the NebuAd idea out for a spin -- by doing so, Charter learned users weren't about to tolerate that kind of intrusiveness, even though the net's advertising would be improved as a result.
said by interested party :
2) what if this system was used on a wireLESS isp system, let's say at a coffee shop for ie. Could the browser on the page loading be slow b/c it is embedding a similar cookie? Could the isp, that is acting as a search engine, claiming to be an advertiser or publisher, not be embedding cookies within an adnetwork, but be doing so at the point of entry in the search area on the page?
I think this is probably happening now in public wi-fi, hotels, and etc. -- and it doesn't need a cookie to do it (they can just use DPI). There seems to be an implicit expectation that free wi-fi comes with no responsibility for privacy, perhaps because users only use it here and there.
It's still illegal, but if users think that there's some cop on the beat protecting them from public wi-fi companies who are eavesdropping on their traffic, they're sorely mistaken. There's nobody watching our backs, here.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL | |
| | |  TamaraBQuestion The Current ParadigmPremium
join:2000-11-08
Da Bronx
 ·Optimum Online
 ·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: nebuad aka phoenix said by funchords:I'm very keen on watching "Canoe Ventures" develop. Right now, they haven't crossed that line into using your surfing habits to determine what commercials to send to your TV's set top box. Doesn't the very concept of "targeted advertising" mandate, by it's very nature, a violation of privacy?
In order to target ads, no matter what the technology, data about the target needs to be acquired. Such data acquisition by a party not directly in partnership with the target, is a privacy violation; IE, my cable company or ISP, have no business knowing whether or not I own a pet, what my politics are, what medical advice I am seeking, or any other personal data not directly associated with my relationship with the Cable or ISP operator. Furthermore, they have no right to sell or divulge such data, no matter for what purposes it was originally collected, to third parties.
Simply put, targeted advertising as a concept, needs to be made illegal on privacy grounds, and on the fact that it violates wiretap laws.
Bob
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"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." -- Voltaire
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Not so long? Not goodbye?