AT&T Having Obtained Immunity, Now Seeks to Spy Openly
Talk about your undertstaements: At&T Mulls Watching You Surf:
AT&T is “carefully considering” monitoring the Web-surfing activities of customers who use its Internet service, the company said in a letter in response to an inquiry from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
While the company said it hadn’t tested such a system for monitoring display advertising viewing habits or committed to a particular technology, it expressed much more interest in the approach than the other big Internet providers who also responded to the committee’s letter.
AT&T did however promise that if it does decide to start tracking its customers online, it will “do so the right way.” In particular, the advertising system will require customers to affirmatively agree to have their surfing monitored. This sort of “opt-in” approach is preferred by privacy experts to the “opt-out” method, practiced by most ad targeting companies today, which records the behavior of anyone who doesn’t explicitly ask to not to be tracked.
The Congressional committee began looking at advertising that targets ads based on the behavior of Internet users after reports emerged that several Internet service providers, including Charter Communications, were preparing to begin selling the chronicles of of their customers’ Web-surfing activities to a company called NebuAd. It sent letters to 33 companies asking about the targeting practices. (All of the responses the committee has received so far are here.)
Is ANYONE surprised by this? Anyone? Buehler? Buelher?
