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A couple of issues with Nebuad's cookie based opt-out... First off, they can't check if you've opted-out without messing with your traffic, unless they wait for you to visit a site that accesses their cookie domain (faireagle.com). Secondly what happens if a remote website tries to opt you in:- Nebuad's opt-out opt-out page is here - http://www.nebuad.com/privacy/optout.php clicking on the opt-out link sets a couple of faireagle.com cookies (o=9 in a.faireagle.com and b.faireagle.com) However, if you search for Nebuad's opt-in url in google - http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&hl=en&q=site%3Anebuad.com+optin_done&btnG=Search&meta= and click on Google's cache of "www.nebuad.com/privacy/optin_done.php" Then check the faireagle cookies to see if you are still opted-out!

Yeah, just got the memo too. Im not too happy about it either, wonder if there is a possible way to make this more automative. Any coders have any ideas? http://www.nebuad.com/privacy/optout.php Is the place to download the cookie for all ISPs that are now usign NebuAD.

I just checked NebuAd's Privacy policy:

NebuAd products do collect and use the following kinds of anonymous information:

• Web pages viewed and links clicked on
• Web search terms
• The amount of time spent at some Web sites
• Response to advertisements
• System settings, such as the browser used and speed of the connection
• ZIP code or postal code

Now that's way out of line for an ISP to collect, let alone send to an ad agency.

We may be able to do something about this.

We run SiteTruth AdRater, which rates advertisers. We have a Firefox extension which displays a rating icon for each ad served. When an ad link goes by, and it's not in the browser cache, the extension contacts our server for a rating of the advertiser. So we collect, over time, a list of advertisers for various ad systems. We're not collecting data about users; we're interested in advertiser behavior. (You can read the source code for the plug-in, so there's no mystery about what we're doing.)

We're not currently tracking NebuAd, Front Porch, or Phorm ads; we've been focusing on the bigger players. It looks like we need to be tracking this behavior. If anyone can find ad links from those services, please post the ad link here, or mail it to "info@sitetruth.com". We need some examples so we can modify the plug-in to recognize them.

If we can collect sufficient information about this class of advertisers, we may publish their customer list, which would be useful for boycott purposes. Thanks.

If this Phorm is anything like these guys, it is them who will filter your traffic in real time and insert "targeted" ads. ISPs just host their hardware and get paid by clicks.

Just wait for the next iteration of this idea. This wouldn't be your problem, since you have no ads, but it would affect content providers who do: an ISP could use its proxy to preempt a content-provider's ads with its own.

NebuAd (http://www.nebuad.com/providers/providers.php), the supplier of these proxies, shows no compunction about the idea of an ISP's inserting ads into pages. Who's to say that someone else won't come along and want to do worse?

The company that runs the box the ISP installed provides an opt-out option. Go to this page and click opt-out.

I think their behavior with this product is reprehensible. Pass the link on to anyone you know who is affected and encourage them to call their ISP and complain every day until it's removed. If all their call center does is get complaints, they'll reconsider whether it's making them any money.