(CN) - Millions of people's Internet searches are routinely monitored, intercepted and misdirected by Internet service providers that direct searchers to counterfeit Web pages, laced with ads, using technology provided by Paxfire, according to a federal class action in Manhattan.
Paxfire, based in Sterling, Va., "works with ISPs throughout the United States," and boasts that it "'generate(s) millions of dollars a month in new advertising revenue for our partners by enabling them to participate in the booming $20 billion a year search advertising market," according to the complaint.
Sued with Paxfire is RCN Corp., one of many Internet service providers (ISPs) that work with Paxfire.
"This case arises from defendants' intentional and knowing interception of data intended for Yahoo!, Bing or Google (the 'Search Engines') via use of hardware and/or software provided by defendant Paxfire, as well as the monitoring, manipulation, aggregation, and/or marketing of the data. This interception was done secretly, without users' consent or knowledge, in violation of federal and state laws, and in breach of RCN's agreements with its customer," the complaint states.
The class claims that the defendants direct Internet users to dummy pages, laced with ads, rather than to the Internet pages the customers actually sought via search engine.
During an Internet search, "Defendant RCN and the other ISPs use technology provided by defendant Paxfire to give false answers to certain of customers' requests, and to send plaintiff and the classes to servers either owned or controlled by defendant Paxfire, or to servers owned by the ISP and utilizing Paxfire's services (collectively 'Paxfire-based proxy servers')," according to the complaint.
It adds: "Defendants violated plaintiff's privacy and compromised her financial interests and computer security, by knowingly and intentionally intercepting her internet communications in order to generate income for themselves. Rather than direct plaintiff to the websites she actually requested, defendants secretly gave her computer system false information that directed plaintiff to websites that looked like the websites she intended to visit, but were actually controlled by and located on servers belonging to defendant RCN and/or defendant Paxfire. In other instances, when plaintiff ran searches, defendants directed plaintiff through advertising affiliates into third-party commercial web pages, rather than provide plaintiff with the requested search results. Without plaintiff's knowledge or consent, defendants used Paxfire's hardware and/or software to misdirect plaintiff to these servers; impersonate the websites plaintiff wished to view, and monitor, manipulate, and/or monetize the searched run and page visits made by plaintiff." (Italics in original.)
Named plaintiff Betsy Feist says researchers discovered these legal violations, conversion, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and breach of faith with a recently developed Internet tool called Netalyzr: "Netalyzr is a network measurement, debugging, and diagnostic tool that evaluates the functionality provided by people's internet connectivity. One of the primary focus areas of Netalyzr is DNS [Domain Name System] behavior. When users run the Netalyzr, the data gathered from the program is sent back to its developers. The creators of Natalyzr analyzed data from numerous tests and discovered cases of ISPs, including defendant RCN, using DNS to redirect web searches to their own proxies."