By Spyware News (www.spywarenews.org) – It would seem that NebuAd, the behavioral targeted advertising protocol used by some Internet Service Providers, is basically like a version of Gator that works at the ISP level. For those of you too young to remember, Gator is one of the frontrunners of spyware/adware distribution a few years ago. Their program came bundled in with programs such as download managers and configuration tweakers, and tracked your surfing and browsing patterns so that it can serve targeted advertisements. The company later changed its name from Gator to Claria in order to get rid of their negative image as spyware distributors.
NebuAd is currently under heavy criticism after being revealed to use TCP/IP packet monitoring in order to intercept, modify and alter contents of Internet packets that are being sent and received while consumers are surfing. NebuAd’s sophisticated deep packet inspection capabilities and the fact that consumers are not made aware of its capabilities or even its existence makes it no less than a spyware or malware program.
Despite a number of spyware companies in proliferation, the real piece of information that ties NebuAd with Gator is the leaked information that both Claria and NebuAd share at least 5 VP-level ranking employees.
NebuAd has not denied the presence of said former Claria employees but tried to downplay the involvement by claiming that the two company’s connections are tenuous at best. People are even more suspicious after finding out that NebuAd, like Claria, is based in Redwood City, CA and has registered its domain in June 2006, the exact same month and year when Claria left the adware business. – www.spywarenews.org
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