Spying: It's not just for breakfast (or government) any more

[RedLetterRev]

The abusive collection of personal data has been a quietly rumbling issue for some time now, but with the recent soreness of amnesty for telecom companies, another set of abuses has surfaced in my inbox. Now this article is a couple-three weeks old, but I haven't heard a hew-and-cry about it.

So I'm makin' one.

It's not bad enough that corporations have been collection information about every aspect of our lives (not just our credit history, but our purchasing habits, our spending and saving habits, what stores we prefer, what magazines we subscribe to, what publications we read online, where we buy gasoline, how much at a time, when, what day of the week, typically what time of the day, ad nauseam), but repeatedly, they have been shown to be irresponsible in safeguarding the information that they collect. Often, they resell their findings to parties unknown to us, without our knowledge and without our permission. All too often, parties unknown to us are making evaluations about our characters, the likelihood that we may be a target for particular marketing strategies, or that we are simply too marginal for their consideration for anything at all.

Prejudice, without even the benefit of being met.

Now this latest tidbit from FreePress:

Groups: Ad Firm Used by ISPs Spies on Users

A targeted advertising vendor being used by several U.S. broadband providers hijacks browsers, spies on users and employs man-in-the-middle attacks, according to a report released Wednesday by two advocacy groups.

NebuAd, a behavioral advertising vendor being used by Charter Communications, WideOpenWest and other Internet service providers, uses also packet forgery, modifies the content of TCP/IP packets and loads subscribers' computers with unwanted cookies, according to the report, released by Public Knowledge and Free Press, two Washington, D.C., groups focused on digital rights.

"NebuAd exploits several forms of 'attack' on users' and applications' security," wrote report author Robert Topolski, chief technology consultant for the two groups. "These practices -- committed upon users with the paid-for cooperation of ISPs -- violate several fundamental expectations of Internet privacy, security and standards-based interoperability."

NebuAd violates Internet Engineering Task Force standards that "created today's Internet where the network operators transmit packets between end users without inspecting or interfering with them," Topolski added.

Bold, mine.

In short, without the user's permission, at the user's cost, and with the full knowledge, complicity and assistance of the ISP, these ad firms invade customers' machines, spy on their content and whereabouts, then report back to agencies unknown. This is exactly equal to warrantless wiretapping, with the added purpose of using this data to further corporate marketing schemes. It's not just unethical, it's not just illegal, it's certainly immoral from any way it can be examined.

And once again, I ask into the night, where TF is Congress when it is supposed to be protecting our right to privacy?

Oh, yeah, that's right. On the corporate money-tit.