Posted by: : Category: NebuAd — the company that dreamed of making millions by paying ISPSs to let it spy on net users — is nearly dead, according to a document filed in federal court in a privacy invasion lawsuit filed against the venture-capital backed company.
According to the company’s lawyers:
NebuAd has been winding down its affairs since late summer 2008. NebuAd laid off substantially all of its officers and employees in July/August 2008 and closed its office in Redwood City on or about September 25, 2008.
NebuAd gave up on its dream of living inside ISPs to spy on web users’ every search or web visit after Congress busted them last summer for conducting secret trials with ISPs. The company wanted to watch what users did in order to sell them to advertisers at higher rates, a system called targeted behavioral advertising. But Congress scared ISPs enough to put paid to NebuAd’s prospects and ISPs’ dreams of sucking another buck or two a month out of customers by selling off their privacy rights.
NebuAd promised to reinvent itself as a traditional online advertising company, but that re-incarnation seems to have not worked.
Perhaps more importantly, the idea of living inside an ISP to spy on users is dead in the U.S. (for advertisers, that is) — at least for a few more years. But across the pond, things are different. A similar concern called Phorm is still fighting to get inside ISPs in England.
See Also:
- Report: NebuAd Forges Packets, Violates Net Standards
- Another Nail in the NebuAd Coffin: CEO Steps Down
- Net Spying Firm and ISPs Sued Over Ad System
- ISP Web Tracking Dead As Net Eavesdropping CEO Resigns
- British Firm Phorm Trudges Through the Deep Packet Storm
- Wikipedia Opts Out of Phorm User-Tracking
- ISP Ad Snooper Phorm Loses Top Execs
Turning Out The Lights: NebuAd - Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ.
Source: Ryan Singel
