Charter Starts Selling Your Browsing History

[IPSecure]

Don't worry, it's all to bring you an 'enhanced online experience...'

http://www.broadbandreports.com/show...-History-94356

Behavioral advertising companies like NebuAD place deep packet inspection hardware on the ISP network, which monitors which sites you visit and for how long. ISPs then get paid for this data, which is then used to deliver customized ads to subscribers. I've discussed how there's a growing number of ISPs who've started using this technology, but don't properly inform users they're doing so. The opt-out process also has problems, relying on cookies that only opt you out of ad delivery, not online usage tracking.

Joining the growing family of ISPs who are using this technology (WOW, Embarq, CenturyTel) is Charter, who this week e-mailed their subscribers to inform them their browsing habits were now a revenue stream. While it's nice that Charter actually e-mailed their customers instead of burying the change in their terms of service like most ISPs, the e-mail still tries to push Charter's money grab as an "enhanced online experience."

I'm writing to inform you of an enhancement coming soon to your web browsing experience... While continuing to deliver the same fast and reliable internet service you've always received, innovative new technology enables Charter to provide you with an enhanced online experience that is more customized to your interests and activities. As a result, the advertising that you typically see online will better reflect the interests you express thorugh your web-surfing activities. You will not see more ads - just ads that are more relevant to you.

Of course Charter's FAQ on the service fails to inform customers that the cookie doesn't stop them from tracking you, just from sending you personalized ads. Interestingly, Charter's opt out form doesn't bother to tell customers the name of the company (I assume it's NebuAD, whose CEO I interviewed last February). One of our forum users wrote a succinct letter to Charter explaining his anger:
In addition to the critical privacy concerns, the steps required to avoid being tracked by this new advertising system place the burden on your customers, rather than on Charter where it belongs. A customer should be able to opt-out of this advertising tracking system in a manner that will rarely, if ever, require the customer to opt-out again. Instead, because the system uses cookies, a customer must insecurely opt-out of being tracked on each PC in his or her home. Further compounding the work that the customer has to do, if the he or she deletes cookies in accordance with safe browsing techniques, it will be necessary to insecurely opt-out on each and every PC again.

Charter sells your browsing information for profit, while you get no reduction in service price and are forced to use an opt-out process that doesn't entirely work. Sound like an enhanced online experience to you?

[DamianTV]

Then get an Ad Blocking Hosts File

[Agent CSL]

They've always been able to record your everything.

[Kludge]

I love science...

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