Charter's Trials of NebuAd Halted

RalphTheWonderLlama writes "The trials of NebuAd by Charter Communications were halted after it gained the attention of Congressmen Ed Markey and Joe Barton. The online behavioral targeting system has been called "a 'man-in-the-middle attack' and various other unflattering names" but would certainly be an easy way for an ISP to cash in on client profiling." PaisteUser points out MSNBC's coverage as well, according to which the ad-insertion scheme was dropped because of "concerns raised by customers."

Comments

Scurry under a rock

[lazyDog86]

I particularly like the little bit about how they will hold off on implementation while these important privacy concerns can be addressed.

Who wants to bet that addressing this means waiting under a rock until no one's looking and then going forward with substantially the same nonsense?

Not just eavesdropping, but spoofing

[algorithmagic]

Looks like NebuAd isn't just eavesdropping on user behavior, but actively creating fake traffic: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/topolski_takes_on_nebuad/ As if the Post Office were not only to read your mail, but to rewrite it for you on the sly. That's beyond Orwellian.

All you need to know abut NebuAd

[whoever57]

From El Reg:

Last week, we pointed out that NebuAd shares five high-ranking employees in common with notorious spyware outfit Claria Corp. (nee Gator Corp). And now we've learned that they share a sixth. NebuAd's Washington DC counsel, Reed Freeman, was Claria's chief privacy officer.