ISP track users site's

Ranging God · **Posted:** June 27th, 2008, 12:21 pm

This makes me ***** off. I dont feel they should have the right to do this, oh and guess what, CenturyTel, one of the compaines doing a trialof it, yeah they are my ISP...

Quote:

NEW YORK - Although a large Internet service provider has backed away from technology that tracks subscribers' Web use in order to deliver personalized advertising, two other broadband companies say they are still considering whether to deploy it.

Phone companies Embarq Corp. and CenturyTel Inc. have both completed trials of the same tracking system, from online advertising company NebuAd Inc., and are now considering whether to proceed.

The largest U.S. Internet provider that had been actively looking at Web tracking, Charter Communications Inc., announced Tuesday that it had canceled its planned test because customers had raised concerns.

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The technology gathers data on the interests of Web surfers by looking at the sites they visit. It passes the information to online advertising companies, without revealing a surfer's identity, so they can display more relevant ads on Web sites. For instance, a surfer who visits sites about dogs might see more banner ads for dog food.

The system has been criticized by privacy advocates and legislators. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, wrote to Charter asking it to put the test on hold to give time for discussions. Markey chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

"We are not currently using behavioral targeting tools and have not decided whether to move forward with them, either through NebuAd or with any other vendor," said Debra Peterson, spokeswoman at Embarq.

The Overland Park, Kan., company is the country's ninth-largest ISP, with 1.34 million broadband lines at the end of March.

Tony Davis, the head of investor relations at CenturyTel, said it was his understanding that the reaction to Charter's proposed test had to do with cable industry regulations that don't apply to a phone company.

Adbot · **Posted:** June 27th, 2008, 12:21 pm

Shane · **Posted:** June 27th, 2008, 1:10 pm

Oh yea.. Heard about this a few weeks ago. Kinda amazing what people will do for money.

http://twit.tv/sn149 <- Security now on the issue from last week.

CreepyPirate · **Posted:** June 28th, 2008, 1:10 pm

This has been a long drawn out debate in the UK. The three big ISP was signing up to this and there was a big back lash about invasion of privacy and so on. Two out of the three decided to make it an opt in thing, so they'd have to call up and actually say they want them to monitor and make adverts for them.

The one I'm on, Virgin decided they'd go for an opt out policy, cause there a bunch of **** who need to go die. :roll:

But yeah, no, we pay our monthly fee they should *NOT* try making any more money off us unless their going to cut the bill price.

jrdgames · **Posted:** June 29th, 2008, 1:47 pm

I think if they are going to be allowed to do it then they should only be able to use the information for ad targeting and popularity knowledge like the TV rating company in the USA called Nielson Ratings.

They should not be able to track you unless you opt-in, and if you do opt-in then they should have to give you atleast 20% off your bill.