charter

Embarq pressured by politicians over NebuAd

A trio of politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives is continuing a campaign against the concept of Web monitoring to display advertisements, most recently with a series of letters this week exchanged with broadband provider Embarq.

Embarq provides Internet connectivity to about 1.3 million subscribers, making it the fourth-largest DSL provider in the country. It has acknowledged experimenting earlier this year with NebuAd, which intercepts and performs deep packet inspection of what's flowing through a company's network in hopes of delivering relevant, anonymized ads.

In two letters (No. 1, and No. 2) to the House … Read more

NebuAd grilled over hot coals in Congress on privacy

NebuAd has made few friends, thanks to a business built on monitoring broadband customers' Web surfing to deliver advertisements. It certainly found none on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based start-up was forced on the defensive during a hearing in which politicians charged that deep packet inspection of Internet traffic was far too privacy-invasive. Only if customers gave affirmative consent by opting in, they said, might the practice be acceptable.

Texas Rep. Gene Green called NebuAd's opt-out procedures "contemptible." To Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle, the practice "goes against everything the country's been … Read more

Senate questions privacy impact of Web monitoring for ads

Monitoring customers' Web browsing to serve up targeted advertisements is coming under increased political scrutiny on privacy grounds, making the future of the controversial technique among Internet service providers less than certain.

A hearing convened by a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday is the latest potential obstacle to widespread adoption of the practice, which relies on intercepting customers' Internet packets and building anonymized profiles that can be used for topic-based advertisements.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., suggested that the procedure amounts to "wiretapping" and promised a followup hearing in the near future to explore the subject further. &… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 753: RIAA killed the radio star

OK, now this is weird: the music industry is trying to undermine the way the music industry distributes and promotes music and has always distributed and promoted music. They're calling radio piracy. What has the world come to? Also, RIM totally biffs it with the BlackBerry Bold; hackers crack the London Tube and ride around for free; and Microsoft sets a date for Windows 7. Somebody reserve the church. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 753

Internet provider halts plan to track, sell users’ surfing data http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401033.html… Read more

Charter drops controversial customer tracking plan

Internet service provider Charter Communications announced Tuesday that it was indefinitely suspending the use of a controversial tool to track its customers' movement on the Web.

Charter, the fourth-largest cable operator in the U.S., announced in May that it would use technology from a company called NebuAd to monitor some of its broadband customers' Internet habits to provide advertisers with information to target online ads to individual customers. Privacy advocates had likened the service to Internet wiretapping.

"Our customers are always our first priority," Charter said a statement. "As such, we are not moving forward with … Read more

Web monitoring for ads? It may be illegal

Online advertising has ballooned into a roughly $45 billion-a-year business, to the benefit of Google, Yahoo, ad networks, and innumerable speciality and hobbyist Web sites.

One corner of this ecosystem that hasn't managed to cash in on advertising is, by some measurements, the largest: broadband providers. So it may have been inevitable that they would seek additional revenue by monitoring their customers' online activities and creating behavioral profiles that could yield hyper-relevant ads.

The only problem with this practice is that it may not be entirely, well, legal. The first warning sign came last week when two members of … Read more

Charter's Web monitoring draws intervention from Capitol Hill

Two prominent members of the U.S. Congress are asking Charter Communications to hold off on its plan to monitor its customers' Web browsing and deliver relevant advertisements.

In a letter to Charter chief executive Neil Smit, Reps. Ed Markey and Joe Barton say the monitoring plan may violate federal privacy laws and ask that the company "not move forward" until "we have an opportunity to discuss" it. Markey is the Democratic chairman of a House Internet subcommittee and Barton is the senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee.

Charter did not immediately respond … Read more

Q&A with Charter VP: Your Web activity, logged and loaded

Charter Communications is planning to monitor its customers' Web surfing and then, anonymously, display relevant advertisements.

What the third-largest U.S. cable operator, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., probably wasn't planning on was a privacy-fueled Internet backlash that began a few days ago after it began notifying customers of its intentions. For its part, Charter describes its behavioral profiling plans this way: "innovative new technology in the field of online advertising enables Charter to provide you with an enhanced online experience that is more customized to your interests and activities."

The disclosure led to a flurry of … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 723: Best bad idea ever

The military has proposed creating their own botnet to help combat cyberfoes. Kevin Poulsen at Wired thinks this is idiotic. We think there's a certain amount of mad genius to it, and debate the points. Meanwhile 6 million Chileans had their personal data leaked to the Internet. Don't worry it's not all shock and awe. Harvard says violent video games are A-OK! Shoot 'em up, kids! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 723

Note: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Friday, May 16. However, you do not need to subscribe to … Read more