The US ISP Charter Internet has just sent out an email to its customers, telling them they can look forward to an "enhancement" to their web browsing experience. Yes, it's targeted advertising - "more customized to your interests and activities. As a result of this service, the advertising you typically see online will better reflect the interests you express through your web-surfing activity. You will not see more ads – just ads that are more relevant to you."
Charter doesn't say which company is providing the server-side adware, a model that's familiar (at least in theory) through the work of companies such as Phorm, though in the US a company called NebuAd is also busy, but trying to keep itself below the media radar. (Those at DSLReports suggest it's NebuAd that's behind Charter.)
The move by Charter has raised the ire of Consumerist, and Lauren Weinstein, an American privacy advocate, who says that
we now need to look to the FCC, FTC, and Congress for immediate actions to protect ISP subscribers' privacy rights, and both the privacy and business rights of the Internet services with whom those users communicate.
The discussion at Slashdot will sound very familiar to anyone who's read the discussions here about Phorm, though it does add the useful link to the "web integrity checker" page which will tell you directly if your browsing is being monkeyed about with. OR at least, whether it can detect it, which may be different.
I talked about the issue of Phorm and packet inspection with the Canadian Broadcasting Company a week or so ago, and forecast that there would be a lot more of this happening. Seems I was righter than I thought. You can listen to my full interview, and the full programme (which includes Lauren Weinstein).
Meanwhile, does anyone have any definitive knowledge of whether it's NebuAd or someone else working with Charter?
Update: Wired says that it is indeed NebuAd:
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.
And just as a data point, notes that Charter has 2.7m customers.
