Midwestern data pimping alive and well

Where are these ads placed?

What are they replacing?

Are the original advertisers annoyed that someone else is supplanting their paid-for spot?

The current cookie opt-out is a standard practice for the online advertising industry

Because the "online advertising industry" is above the law and can do what the fuck it wants

Check out the total lack of action by the corrupt British politicians/watch-dogs in the Phorm scandle

There is no opt-out

"NebuAd says it anonymizes all user data. And users can opt-out of the system. But the opt-out is cookie-based. If you install a new browser or move to a new machine, the tracking starts anew."

If it requires a cookie to be placed on the user's machine, it's not an opt-out at all. There are any number of reasons to not use cookies, ranging from security-conscious to fear of the unknown (since many non-IT people tell others that cookies are only used to track your movements and activities). There are also any number of methods to not use cookies, ranging from disabling them in your browser to disabling them via security products to using a browser that doesn't support cookies to manually or automatically rejecting cookies based on certain criteria.

Using a cookie as an opt-out method means that people using browsers which don't support cookies, people using security products which block cookies, and people manually/automatically rejecting cookies are not allowed to opt out. Any opt-out method which makes it impossible for even one user to opt-out is completely unacceptable. What's next? An opt-out method that requires an ActiveX applet?

@ Tom - they don't 'replace' anything

These snoopers run adspace-brokering "partnerships". People who are suckered into buying their web adspace from these snoopers and their brokerages pay for their ads based on how many times they're clicked on. The people who provide webpage space for ads from this brokerage have software that checks who is visiting their page, and what their interests are, based on the snoopers' snooping and serve up, instead of randomly rotated ads, ads that tend to match those interests from amongst those who've bought adspace from the brokerage.

Everyone gets paid by the click. Well, everyone except the people who are being snooped on (that's you, the browser, and the owners of every web site you've ever visited). So the triumvirate of Adbroker, webad server and adspace buyer are happy because there's more chance of a paid for click leading to a purchase, so it's more effective.

You're just being snooped on. Without any control over what these snoopers do with that information.