Under Fire, Comcast Halts Certain Data Collection Practices
Comcast Corp. has halted the collection and storage of some Web browsing data after coming under intense fire.
The cable and Internet service company had begun recording the Web browsing activities of each of its 950,000 million subscribers without notifying them of the change.
Following a flurry of media reports and a letter from a member of Congress, the company said Wednesday it had stopped storing individual customer information to reassure customers that their private information is secure.
Privacy advocates weren’t appeased by the move.
“It’s a very common story that when a company’s practices are placed under scrutiny to revise them,” said Jason Catlett, president and founder of Green Brook, NJ-based Junkbusters Corp. a privacy advocacy firm. “It would be easy to say it’s a welcome move but they shouldn’t have tried it in the first place. ISPs have no business recording where people go anymore than phone companies should record the contents of people’s phone calls.”
Jerry Cerasale, vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association, also weighed in on the firm, which is a member of the DMA.
“From our view, the customer has to know what you’re doing,” he said. “That’s the obligation of the marketer and the ISP.”
On Wednesday, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) had sent a letter to Comcast president Brian Roberts raising concerns about the practices.
“Consumer privacy in the digital era is fundamental to ensuring trust between citizens and the owners of the nation’s communications networks and services,” Markey wrote. “I believe that many consumers would be understandably concerned if our nation’s cable operators began to monitor Americans’ use of cable systems for other services such as telecommunication services, including broadband access to the Internet via cable modems.”
He requested a clarification of Comcast’s data collection and use policies. Comcast is the nation’s third largest cable company.
The response from Roberts came the same day. It read: “Effective this morning, we have stopped collecting and storing the usage data that prompted the press reports.”
“At no time did we link any usage data to information about any specific customer,” Roberts continued.
Washington, DC-based Comcast had begun collecting the data when it launched its High Speed Internet Service six weeks ago. The service is transitioning Comcast customers that had been using bankrupt Excite@Home’s network to its new Internet service.
The firm plans to name a chief privacy officer.
