US Lawyers Challenge NebuAd UK Launch

Lawyers involved in a privacy violation suit against behavioral targeting company NebuAd are now claiming that the firm went into US receivership specifically in order to avoid having to pay possible damages. A new firm has been launched in the UK.

The lawsuit was originally brought by 15 web users who are suing the firm for buying information about their web activity from Internet service providers (ISPs), who then used it to send the users targeted advertising.

Their lawyers have now filed new papers with the federal district court in San Francisco, which claim that the new UK-based company InsightReady is a ploy by NebuAd executives to avoid this legal action.

They allege that NebuAd registered the domain name InsightReady.com in the UK two days after the lawsuit was filed last November.

'NebuAd has long known exactly what it would do to escape this lawsuit,' the lawyers claim. 'From setting up the new corporate entity, to moving it to a new country, to staffing it with the same loyal executives who have been with it all along ... these are well-trod paths for the principal actors.'

Reports suggest that the new papers will attempt to hold former NebuAd executives personally liable or recover assets from the new firm if the lawyers win the case.

Last summer, Members of the House of Representatives Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee questioned NebuAd's practice of working with ISPs to track subscribers' web activities. At the time, Texas Representative Gene Green described the firm's opt-out procedures as 'contemptible'. InsightReady says it will collect behavioural data in partnership with web site owners and that all data will be anonymised.

The new firm is online at www.insightready.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.