Is Your ISP Tracking Your Web Surfing and Selling the Data to Advertisers? Posted by Bob at 05/19/08 03:46 PM

It’s the stuff of a science fiction thriller: A big company shadowing your every move on the Internet, compiling a detailed profile of every web site you visit, how long you stay, and what you did while you were there.

But this nightmarish scenario is all too real – and it is playing out right now. A number of small Internet service providers are already stealthily tracking their customers as they surf the web and sharing that information with online advertising firms.

Wait, it gets worse.

This last week it was disclosed that Charter Communications, one of the country’s largest cable broadband providers, is teaming up with a controversial online advertising company called NebuAd to track Charter customer’s web surfing activities in order to deliver “targeted” online advertising.

Charter plans to begin the tracking in four markets next month; Ft. Worth, Texas; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Oxford, Mass.; and Newtown, Conn.

Charter recently sent a letter to its customers in those markets telling them they are about to receive “enhanced online experience.” Charter wrote that the NebuAd ads generated by the deal “will better reflect the interests you express through your Web-surfing activity. You will not see more ads – just ads that are more relevant to you.”

Charter says customers will be able to opt-out of the tracking, by providing their name and address and installing an “opt-out cookie” on their computer. PC World has done an excellent job explaining the technical details in an article you can read by clicking here.

Two powerful members of Congress reacted quickly to the news about the Charter/NubuAd deal last week, saying that the planned opt-out option is not adequate.

In a letter to Charter Communications CEO Neil Smit, House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Minority Member Joe Barton, R-Tx., expressed deep concerns about the NebuAd deal. Click here to see the letter.

“Any service to which a subscriber does not affirmatively subscribe and that can result in the collection of information about the web-related habits and interests of a subscriber…raises substantial questions,” the two legislators wrote.

Markey was even blunter in a written statement he issued with the letter.

“Charter Communications' reported plans to sell information about their customers’ activities online raise several red flags. Simply providing a method for users to opt-out of the program is not the same has asking users to affirmatively agree to participate in the program. These privacy issues and how this venture is consistent with communications privacy laws must be addressed before the company moves forward with this plan.”

But it appears that Charter is just the latest and biggest ISP to jump into the web-surfing surveillance business with NebuAd and some online advertising firms.

Click on the links below to learn more.

“Every Click You Make” Washington Post
“Privacy Groups Ask for Online 'Do Not Track' List” Wired
Consumers Union Comments to Federal Trade Commission on Behavioral Advertising

We will be closely tracking the situation and blogging on any new developments. In the meantime, what do you think about the Charter/NebuAd plan?

comments (12)

1 Posted by Conrad Wayne Ware at 05/29/08 02:19 PM

This day and age is all about $$$$$$$. It doesn't surprise me that this is going on. Aferall, our government officials are setting the example.

2 Posted by Robert Goldman at 06/03/08 08:48 AM

The most effective way to express your displeasure with what Charter is planning is to change your ISP.

3 Posted by Regina Gurland at 06/03/08 09:14 AM

What do youexpect when you have a government as lawless and devious as ours? They should be held for war crimes!

4 Posted by ASHLEY at 06/03/08 09:29 AM

Great Scott - is "Charter Communications" part of the former Charter Hospital group that sent families into "crisis centers" in the 90s??? Sound like its arisen from the ashes. IOW, avoid any such name in the future - like the the Plaugue.

;-))

Seriously, any one with charter should get out of Charter! One tingle of a warning like this would be enough for me. Use your SEARCH progam and enter under Files Folders, cookies, and run it. Then delete all of them except the system icon. Keep them off your computer. I hate "gurus" who tell me "they don't do a thing...leave them there." Well, I will if I'm paid!

5 Posted by HENRY GRIMES at 06/03/08 09:54 AM

EVERY online advertising. HAS TO HAVE A RETURN ADDRESS THAT WE CAN RESPOND TO

6 Posted by Sharan at 06/03/08 10:37 AM

Hey...I'm all for capitalism but this is nothing more than sneaky, underhanded spying for bucks and I'm totally against it.

7 Posted by VINCENT POIRIER at 06/03/08 10:56 AM

An intolerable invasion of privacy that simply reflects the lawless precedents instituted by our present administration. And to cynically offer, ex post facto, the victims of such intrusion the option to drop out is, in my view, the same as asking someone who has been robbed if he/she would like to be removed from the list of selected victims.

8 Posted by R Douglas Thorman at 06/03/08 03:46 PM

Any and all providers and users of internet communications & sevices should be required by law to "not share any information with others". Doing so should require that they be prohibited from participating in any future activity that is related to use of the internet. Failure to obey this law should result in their business licences being revoked with additional major financial penalties, namely to bankrupt the company and its board of directors and CEO.

9 Posted by Tammy at 06/03/08 11:57 PM

Wouldn't surprise me one bit and I don't like it. Especially now since they say were in a recession.

10 Posted by tars at 06/05/08 06:19 PM

If you use the Verizon internet ISP on or June 9th, 2008 the new "terms of service agreement" takes effect. You had better read it. It is NOT good.

Verizon our DSL provider just sent us a new "Terms of Service" email with a few broad innocent looking bullets. You ar instructed to go to the Verizon web site, look for the "terms of service" line on the bottom of the page to read the terms. That takes a little time.

Buried in the new "terms of service" agreement Verizon litterly anounces that Verizon may store each and every piece of information you send or receive over the internet wheateer it is DSL or Dialup and use share or do what they wish with your information. this as written includes ALL of your data, bank accounts, health records, confidendual communication with your attorney, your senator, your Congressman or congresswoman, your stock broker, your children, all of your realatives and absolutly anything you use the internet for.

I would ratehr give up the internet. It has become a Corporate total invasion of your entire life.

11 Posted by Tars at 06/05/08 07:35 PM

RE: my previous Verizon newest "Terms of Agreement" post ... Tars ...

Forgot to mention this new Verizon "terms of Agreement" additionaly appears to be a back door attempt to shield or imunize them, Verizon, from any legal liability or lawsuits from sharing your telecom/internet traffic with Law Enforcement, F.B.I. or other Govt entity with out proper warrents... As I read this it appears to be a defacto document, meaning going back into the past internet or telecom activity on the Verizon customers part. Sneaky huh. do not let verizon get away with this...

We are going to forward this newest Verizon "Terms of Service Agreement" on to the local ACLU chapter and my attorney. I think Verizon has stepped over the line. We will see.

12 Posted by Helen Marshall at 06/10/08 07:01 PM

Saying that you should change your ISP is fine for the limited markets where that is possible.

Meantime, what's next? Blackwater operating the tracking program and integrating with their private espionage program?