Internet service provider Alice unsolicitedly acts as content provider

By Steffen Müller. Licensed under the Creative Commons License

Since a few days, the Internet service provider Alice (Hansenet / Telecom Italia) abuses my DSL connection by showing unsolicited advertisements. I cannot accept this behavior.

Browser requests to non-existent DNS names are redirected to an advertising website with google ads. What they call "service", in my opinion is abuse. I never asked for this kind of service. I pay them as an internet service provider and not as a content provider. If they earn money by forcing me to watch google ads, I insist to get paid for that. Also I don't want to be bugged by non functional opt-out links which do not stop this crap. Last but not least, it is a privacy interference, because phrases of my requests are used as subject for the google ads and probably forwarded to some third party.

Not only are they breaking internet standards and abuse privacy, but they act as a content provider. And this may have adverse consequences for them:
In Germany, all content providers ("Anbieter von Mediendiensten") are forced by law ("Telemediengesetzes") to maintain an impress on their website. If they do not, they risk to get some kind of cease-and-desist order ("Abmahnung und Unterlassungsaufforderung"), which not only costs money but could turn press spotlights on this abuse. This hopefully attracts lawyers as well as the press and stops this nonsense.

Btw, Verisign once started a similar "service" which earned lots of critique. They could have learned from that.

Now finally, let's welcome Alice on my personal blacklist of companies-to-be-never-recommended.

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