ISP WideOpenWest Sued for Installing Spyware on Network for 3rd Party Advertisers

By Leader Staff. Published on 12/11/2009 - 2:57pm

According to a class-action lawsuit, internet service provider WideOpenWest LLC(WOW!) installed spyware on its networks which in turn gave a third-party online advertising company unrestricted access to all inbound and outbound communication. The suit was filed in US District Court in Chicago on Wednesday, and claims that WOW gave NebuAd Inc. virtually unlimited access to the personal information of at least 330,000 people in Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; and Evansville, IN.

NebuAd's advertising system works by exploiting normal browser platform security behaviors through the forging of IP packets. This allows its own JavaScript code to be written into source code trusted by the browser.

The lawsuit claims that NebuAd paid WOW for each person that they spied on and then used the information obtained to deliver customized ads based on their internet search perferences. In addition, the suit says WOW lied to Congress last year when it said it made an agreement with NebuAd.

That means that WOW also misled its customers. The company's literature specifically states that customers should "rest assured that WOW does not and will not share personably identifiable information with any advertiser."

The lawsuit is demanding that WOW turn over all money received from NebuAd, which would then be distributed to those involved in the class action lawsuit. it also asks for WOW to delete all of its stored personal information, and restitution and damages for invasion of privacy, unjust enrichment, eavesdropping and violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse act.

A PDF of the full court filing can be viewed here.

Tags:

Comments

Submitted by jessie (not verified) on March 10, 2011 - 1:46pm
#1

OMG this is outrageous, how could they do that? I understand they wanted to win some easy money, but doing that to the persons who trusted them and used their services is unacceptable. If I was one of those people I would give up on their services instantly. That's why I like the business security software I use, it will never allow any spyware program to run on my computer, it protects my privacy and this is priceless to me.