Over the last few weeks on 508, Mike Benedetti and I have been discussing Charter Communications plans to begin monitoring customer web traffic to better target advertising. And examining the process used by the company they’ve contracted with on this, NebuAd, has raised more questions than it’s answered. After reading Ryan Singels take on the opt-out process over at WIREDs Threat Level, another question seems to be floating out there. Is any of this even legal? Now, Singel is talking about federal wiretap law, but for those of you who have been following this story on a local level here’s the language in the MGL regarding wire taps. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts as to how Charters plan would or would not be a violation of MGL Chapter 272: Section 99 which reads in part:
D. Exemptions.
1. Permitted interception of wire or oral communications.
It shall not be a violation of this section—
a. for an operator of a switchboard, or an officer, employee, or agent of any communication common carrier, whose facilities are used in the transmission of a wire communication, to intercept, disclose, or use that communication in the normal course of his employment while engaged in any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of service or to the protection of the rights or property of the carrier of such communication, or which is necessary to prevent the use of such facilities in violation of section fourteen A of chapter two hundred and sixty-nine of the general laws; provided, that said communication common carriers shall not utilize service observing or random monitoring except for mechanical or service quality control checks.
What am I missing here? Can an opt-out system that you can’t really opt out of satisfy that final clause? And can anyone recommend a solid high speed internet provider? I think it’s time for me to cut loose from Charter.
For those of you who haven’t been following this story (like the entirety of the Worcester media) and have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a nice overview from the NYT.
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As I am reading your blog, I notice the entire right column of your page is completely filled, from top to bottom with Charter ads.
Are they sucking of the tits of Radioball at this very moment?
Freaky man, I feel creeped out. I’m turning my computer off right now.
Stay safe my friend. Who knows who lurks in the shadows of bits and bytes?
There is no safe HSI provider to choose.
More than one HSI provider is using NeduAd’s deep packet inspection to monitor customers ‘net bits. More (all) ISPs will follow this action. Just how many will admit to doing it is another can of worms.
Charter says they’re doing it. Louisiana-based DSL provider CenturyTel told their customers they were monitoring. Other ISP may have “announced” this in fine print buried deep in the TOS.
Online advertising is a $11 billion business that’s always growing. Will increased revenue$ wipe out customer privacy?