On Monday, November 10, 2008 a class action lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California against NebuAD and its ISP partners for selling subscribers’ web browsing history without their consent. The complaint claims that NebuAD and the ISPs committed illegal privacy and computer security breaches against Internet subscribers by using deep packet inspection technology to track users’ search and browsing activity and shuttle it to various advertising networks, which used the information to deploy targeted advertising to subscribers. See also ISPs Selling User Web Browsing History.
The lawsuit accuses NebuAd, and its ISP partners, Bresnan Communications, Cable One, CenturyTel, Embarq, Knology, and WOW!, of being involved in the interception, copying, transmission, collection, storage, usage, and altering of private data from users. All of the involved parties are alleged to have violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, California’s Computer Crime Law, the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the California Invasion of Privacy Act. Several of the ISPs are accused of aiding and abetting violations of the above laws and are accused of civil conspiracy. All defendants are being charged with unjust enrichment for benefiting from the communications they intercepted.
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