Brave new world of digital privacy - Big Brother is watching you!
Tansi/Good Day Readers:
The National Post article reproduced below inspired us to call Internet Service Provider Shaw Cable with a few questions. Here's what their official said:
(1) When an individual anonymously posts comments to a Blog the only electronic trail or fingerprint left behind is the unique number of the computer from which the message was sent. From this information, a Blogmaster cannot identify your name or address only an ISP can
(2) The only way an anonymous message sender can be identified is if someone has direct access to the computer from which it was sent or the IPS's system
(3) Shaw Cable is not one of the Canadian Internet Service Providers participating in testing the NebuAd software described below although Rogers and Bell may be. Regardless, your name and location is not compromised other than you live in Canada. What it does, however, is create a profile of internet sites you've visited.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
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New Hardware Raises Bar On Surveillance On Internet
Advertising Tool
By George-Cosh
National Post
April 14, 2008
Page FP1
Call it the arrival of the Cookies 2.0.
A small U.S.-based firm is quietly testing its behavioural advertising technology with a number of Canadian Internet service providers that some industry observers say could create an outcry over consumer privacy concerns and reshape digital marketing strategies.
In an interview, NebuAd co-founder and chief executive Bob Dykes confirmed his company is testing its hardware with a number of undisclosed Canadian Internet service providers and has launched a sales team in Canada to locate more business.
"We simply map what people are interested in and then sell advertising which is more relevant to their person than previously could be done," Mr. Dykes said. "It's very similar to other behavioural targeted ad networks but has a greater capability ot make better connections."
Similar to how "cookies" - a list of addresses of recently viewed Web pages- are embedded within Web sites to record users online traffic, NebuAd's service to ISP's offers marketers a more sophisticated view of users' online activities.
The National Post article reproduced below inspired us to call Internet Service Provider Shaw Cable with a few questions. Here's what their official said:
(1) When an individual anonymously posts comments to a Blog the only electronic trail or fingerprint left behind is the unique number of the computer from which the message was sent. From this information, a Blogmaster cannot identify your name or address only an ISP can
(2) The only way an anonymous message sender can be identified is if someone has direct access to the computer from which it was sent or the IPS's system
(3) Shaw Cable is not one of the Canadian Internet Service Providers participating in testing the NebuAd software described below although Rogers and Bell may be. Regardless, your name and location is not compromised other than you live in Canada. What it does, however, is create a profile of internet sites you've visited.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Hardware Raises Bar On Surveillance On Internet
Advertising Tool
By George-Cosh
National Post
April 14, 2008
Page FP1
Call it the arrival of the Cookies 2.0.
A small U.S.-based firm is quietly testing its behavioural advertising technology with a number of Canadian Internet service providers that some industry observers say could create an outcry over consumer privacy concerns and reshape digital marketing strategies.
In an interview, NebuAd co-founder and chief executive Bob Dykes confirmed his company is testing its hardware with a number of undisclosed Canadian Internet service providers and has launched a sales team in Canada to locate more business.
"We simply map what people are interested in and then sell advertising which is more relevant to their person than previously could be done," Mr. Dykes said. "It's very similar to other behavioural targeted ad networks but has a greater capability ot make better connections."
Similar to how "cookies" - a list of addresses of recently viewed Web pages- are embedded within Web sites to record users online traffic, NebuAd's service to ISP's offers marketers a more sophisticated view of users' online activities.
It uses so called "deep packet inspection."
By installing hardware directly onto ISP networks, Mr. Dykes said NebuAd is able to effectively monitor Web traffic in greater detail and deliver ads based on those behaviours, much more effectively than traditional search-based online advertising pioneered by Web giants Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
However, Mr. Dykes said NebuAd does not retain any information that can identify who users are and that subscribers are given the opportunity ot opt out of the service once the ISPs have activated it on their networks.
"Because we see more date, we have to be more careful," he said.
Although nascent, this form of behavioural advertising is beginning to see a rise of interest from ISPs in North America and Europe looking for a way to profit from a market long dominated by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Mr. Dykes says that in less than a year of operations, NebuAd reaches about 10% of all U.S. online activity and the company's main U.K. rival Phorm Inc. has partnered with companies representing approximately 70% of the UK broadband market.
"Traditionally, marketers find compelling new ways of marketing very seductive," said David Hallerman, a senior analyst with eMarketer. "It can tell marketers where people go and what they did, such as shopping for a new bike."
But as interest grows, so does the backlash from Web users who fear that their online privacy has been compromised.
Internet founder, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has fueled controversy in the U.K. after he criticized Phorm's tracking technology and said he would change ISPs if faced with such a service. Similarly, Facebook encounered widespread ciritcism last year after a new ad system, called Beacon, used data from Web sites users visited outside of the site to provide personal ads.
Although NebuAd may conform to Canadian privacy laws, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist said it highlights that many Canadians don't know about the monitoring that may take place as they surf the web.
"You're implementing new levels of surveillance within the network presumable with the consent of subscribers though in some ways it's a bit of a legal fiction," Mr. Geist said. "Many of the subscribers may have agreed though they are unaware to that kind of level of monitoring.
Financial Post
dgeorgecosh@nationalpost.com
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 11:05 AM
2 Comments:
Whatever happened to your pal Tony Belumer ??
For every positive integer n, there exists a square in the plane with exactly n lattice points in its interior. This was extended by Schinzel and Kulikowski to all plane figures of a given shape. The generalization of the square in two-dimensional to the cube in three dimensions was also proved by Browkin.
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