Charter ISP Customer? Your Privacy Just Went Down the Tubes

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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. May. 14, 2008 2:38 pm

Charter to Snoop on Broadband Customers' Web Histories for Ad Networks

.........Charter is partnering with a company called NebuAD to build profiles of its users. NebuAD will share the behavioral tracking results with third-party advertising networks like DoubleClick. Users can opt out of the system, but have to give their full name and address to get an opt-out cookie. The process would have to be repeated for every browser on every computer in a home to block the service, and would have to be reset if cookies are ever deleted.

Charter is entering tricky territory with the program, which effectively turns the ISP into the ultimate third-party tracking network. Conventional ad delivery networks like DoubleClick use a third-party cookie to build profiles of users across different websites, but can only track visits to sites that serve the company's ads. In contrast, Charter will know every URL its customers visit.
This is huge privacy concern for you the consumer, this cannot be blocked because the ISP know every move you make.

It's also a concern for me, the technology by Nebuad can also be used to insert ads into web pages. For example you come here and there's a additional ad on the side of the page. I've said it before and I'll say it again, any ISP that attempts to place ads on my pages will be blocked, they aren't doing it yet but in the event they do begin to do that I have every intentions of following through with that plan. I'll also add I won't be alone as many webmasters have the same intentions as me.

 
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Post by WNY » Wed. May. 14, 2008 3:18 pm

I notice that on certain website, when I see local ads for insurance, businesses, etc...show up...kinda weird...I think, how do they know where I live? Duh, your IP gives it away.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. May. 14, 2008 4:18 pm

I don't know if google geo-targets ads but I wouldn't doubt it. Someone could also advertise through Google on here too, I do have few that have specifically targeted this site for advertisements that are NEPA business's.

This is completely different though, they will logging what sites you visit through the ISP. Unless you opt out you can't stop them from doing it, and if that article is correct then it will be quite a PITA to opt out and stay opted out. They'll be able to build a history of every site you visit or whatever else you do online, then when you visit a site that is using the Nebuad program they'll be able to target ads according to what you have viewed in the past.

The cookies set now by a lot of ad servers do the same thing however you can block or delete them if you want.

What's really interesting that I read in another article is that Nebuad is just a rebadged Claria and Gator corportation. Both of these companies have come under severe criticism in the past. Gator was even sued and settled out of court, these are not the types of companies that should even begin to have any trust by anyone let alone a high profile ISP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claria_Corporation
The Gator software has in the past undercut the fundamental ad-supported nature of many Internet publishers by replacing banner ads on web sites with its own, thereby depriving the content provider of the revenue necessary to continue providing that content. In June 2002 a number of large publishers, including the New York Post, The New York Times, and Dow Jones & Company, sued Gator Software for its practice of replacing ads. Most of the lawsuits were settled out of court in February 2003.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. May. 14, 2008 4:49 pm

Someone PM'd me about it being a possible rumor which is understanadble, no rumor you can read it from Charter themselves: http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html

One thing to note I mentioned the insertion of ads using Nebuad technology. There's no mention of that in any documentation or articles that Charter will be doing that. It was used briefly for that by a Texas based ISP a few months ago.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/23/real-evil-is ... vertising/

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. May. 14, 2008 5:03 pm

Here's a little more about Gator if you have lived in a bubble :P : http://www.pcpitstop.com/gator/default.asp


 
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Post by acesover » Thu. May. 15, 2008 4:36 am

Just call me bubble boy, it's all new to me. Thank for the info.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. May. 15, 2008 1:25 pm

This just came out the other day, they will be sending letters out to the test areas in a few days. According to an article they are going to evaluate over a few months then decide to if they will do it for every customer. My guess is they will unless there is huge uproar over it, one article I read sated Nebuad was willing to pay a few bucks per customer, I believe that was yearly. Charter would probably get cut of profits from any ads they clicked too.. They stand to make a huge amount of profits by selling their customers data.

 
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Post by LsFarm » Sat. May. 17, 2008 3:47 pm

I live in a bubble too,, I read the article, thanks Richard,, very interesting, and explains some odd popups and email advertisements I've recieved.

Greg L

.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. May. 17, 2008 4:05 pm

LsFarm wrote: very interesting, and explains some odd popups
I can tell you one thing, if you ever get a pop up on here other than the PM notification it's coming from somewhere else. Actually any pop-up needs to either be initiated by a webpage or by something installed on your computer.

Spam Emails are not that hard to "personalize", if for example you had your email address exposed on a forum like this or any other web page they have bots that harvest these addresses. They could process the page looking for telltale signs for what it is, if they determine its a phpbb3 forum they could then know where you live if you added that information and your username.

e.g "LsFarm do we have deal on Real estate in Michigan for you..."

A stock phpbb3 forum exposes the email address to anyone if the member has that selected in their profile, I've modified this one so you need to be logged in to see email addresses of other members and that is only if the member has it set to expose the email address in their profile. You also need to be logged in to view the memberlist or any profiles.

 
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Post by Yanche » Sat. May. 17, 2008 8:17 pm

And the really determined e-mail address harvesters, just create an account and get the visible addresses. Groups with lots of volunteer zealots do this, political, religious, environmental, etc.


 
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Post by coalnewbie » Sat. May. 24, 2008 4:33 pm

Well yes if the FBI really wants you it's tough so privacy is just a metter of degree. But you can protect yourself from these clowns if you really want to. This will get you started.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

 
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. May. 24, 2008 8:58 pm

coalnewbie wrote:Well yes if the FBI really wants you it's tough so privacy is just a metter of degree. But you can protect yourself from these clowns if you really want to. This will get you started.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**
Proxy servers will not prevent this from happening, this tracking is done by your ISP or at the pole if you want to put it that way. The request for the proxy page is sent through your ISP first. What it may prevent is them form gathering what sites you're viewing because they'll be logging the site as the proxy but I'm sure that can easily be overcome.
Yanche wrote:And the really determined e-mail address harvesters, just create an account and get the visible addresses.
There's a really cool forum feature that will allow you to send email through here, the email addresses are hidden behind the server. You'd only get the destination email address if they replied to your email. However its a double edged sword because I'll be opening the forum up to be used by the spammer themselves to send email to members through me which is certainly something I'm not going to expose myself too.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. Jun. 07, 2008 1:38 pm

I'm a member of webmaster forum and someone in that forum brought up an interesting scenario. Before I continue it should be noted that these systems cannot collect any data sent over https which is encrypted. https is used where sensitive data is concerned but it comes at the price of a lot of CPU usage server side. Credit card purchases is the most common use but it can be used for anything. Medical sites are another place this is used a lot.

Having said that a lot of sites, this one included, has members only areas that are secured through the login. These collection systems piggy back on the users login credentials which will allow them to gain access to areas that normally would not be accessible by anyone but the user. In essence the privacy of other users can be compromised as well. For example this system will be able to gain access to the "Flame suit central" forum, I know this may sound trivial but I think you really need to look at the big picture. The fact is I haven't granted access to the ISP and they shouldn't be there.

Just some more food for thought where I see this heading.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. Jun. 26, 2008 7:20 am

Charter will be dropping the trial program under critcism:
**Broken Link(s) Removed**
Charter drops Web tracking plans

By JIM SALTER –

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Charter Communications Inc. is dropping plans to track the Web usage of some high-speed Internet subscribers, citing concerns raised by customers, the company said Tuesday.

In May, Charter announced a pilot program in four markets aimed at producing enough information for advertisers to target online ads for individual customers based on their viewing habits. But the St. Louis-based company said in a statement that some customers have raised concerns, so the program will be canceled before it begins.

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