Congressmen to Charter: Don't track customers' browsing habits
Two prominent congressmen are asking Charter Communications not to begin testing a program under which it will track the browsing habits of its high-speed Internet customers in order to send them targeted ads.
Charter last week began sending explanatory e-mail letters to its broadband customers in the pilot markets of San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Fort Worth, Texas; Newtown, Conn.; and Oxford, Mass., but a Charter executive told The Capital Times Wednesday that the program does not start for 30 days.
Charter, which has thousands of broadband customers in the Madison area, said it has no immediate plans to expand beyond the test markets.
On Friday, Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, sent a letter to Charter CEO Neil Smit stating that the program may violate federal privacy laws and that "We respectfully request that you do not move forward . . . until we have an opportunity to discuss with you issues raised by this proposed venture."
Markey chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and Barton is the senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee.
"Charter Communications' reported plans to sell information about their customers' activities online raises several red flags," Markey said in a press release. "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."
Charter did an interview by e-mail with The Capital Times on Wednesday on the program but has not responded to follow up queries seeking clarification on issues regarding the program.
Other media reported that Charter issued a statement Friday saying it would take an "open approach" with Markey and Barton and would be "pleased to discuss this matter" with them.
Federal law cited by Markey and Barton seems to indicate that Charter needs to use an opt-in system where it asks customers for permission to monitor their Web usage and send them targeted ads.
The letter refers to Section 631 of the Communications Act which contains privacy provisions regarding cable operators. The letter states that "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, or a subscriber's use of the operator's services, or the identification of an individual subscriber, and archives any of these results without the 'prior written or electronic consent of the subscriber,' raises substantial questions related to Section 631."
Charter said it plans to use an opt-out system where customers can decline the targeted ads, although the company doesn't appear to be offering any way of avoiding the Web tracking.
Markey and Barton have no legal authority to halt Charter's program, but they could convene hearings and give the company a public relations black eye.
Barry Orton, a UW-Madison professor of telecommunications who closely follows such issues, Lee Tien, EFF senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California-based civil liberties advocacy group similar to the American Civil Liberties Union, also raised issues of privacy and legality in interviews with The Capital Times on Thursday.
File photo
Two Congressmen have written a letter to the Charter CEO regarding its plan to track customers' browing habits.
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