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posted by martyb on Thursday August 04 2016, @05:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-charge-for-bandwidth-consumed-by-ads dept.

Stuck with Comcast? You may get stuck some more!

Ars Technica , Gizmodo, ZDNet, and a host of others are reporting that Comcast claims that the FCC has no authority to limit or prohibit the internet provider from distributing web histories to advertisers.

From the Ars Technica article:

As the Federal Communications Commission debates new privacy rules for Internet service providers, Comcast has urged the commission to let ISPs offer different prices based on whether customers opt into systems that share their data and deliver personalized ads.

Comcast executives met with FCC officials last week, and "urged that the Commission allow business models offering discounts or other value to consumers in exchange for allowing ISPs to use their data," Comcast wrote in an ex parte filing that describes the meeting. (MediaPost covered the filing yesterday.)

AT&T is the biggest Internet provider offering such a plan. AT&T's "Internet Preferences" program reroutes customers' Web browsing to an in-house traffic scanning platform, analyzes the customers' search and browsing history, and then uses the results to deliver personalized ads to websites. With Internet Preferences enabled, AT&T customers can pay as little as $70 per month for 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home service, but those who don't opt into Internet Preferences must pay at least $29 a month extra.

[Continues...]

The Washington Post adds:

Consumer groups who oppose Comcast have said that Internet providers have a unique vantage point over everything an Internet user does online. For example, Netflix's intelligence about its users is largely limited to what customers do on its own platform, with little visibility into how those same people watch videos on Hulu or Amazon. (Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Internet providers, however, can detect when a subscriber visits all three sites.

Many analysts expect the FCC to finalize its privacy rules for Internet providers this year. But there are a lot of details to be hashed out, including whether Internet providers will be able to share subscriber data by default with marketers or whether they will be required to first obtain customers' explicit approval.

It's still unclear whether Comcast has actual, concrete plans to roll out a discount, data-driven Internet program. But what is clear is that the company has at least considered the possibility and wants looser rules for the industry that would permit such plans. A Comcast spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gizmodo puts it succinctly: "Comcast has logged yet another tally in the competition for Shittiest Company In Existence."


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  • (Score: 2) by Celestial on Thursday August 04 2016, @05:50PM

    by Celestial (4891) on Thursday August 04 2016, @05:50PM (#384140) Journal

    I like IPVanish [ipvanish.com]. It's very fast, reliable, and easy to setup. Unfortunately, it's also expensive. $10 per month for two connections. I currently have two accounts for four connections at $18 per month (three month discount).

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:12PM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:12PM (#384146) Journal

    Without even looking at their how-to page, why would you need two accounts for 4 connections if its all going though your home router which would be the only thing directly connected to them?

     

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:20PM (#384151)

      Alternate locations?

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:22PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:22PM (#384152) Journal

      Of course only Celestial can tell, but I guess he's also using the internet when not at home, so he needs at least one further connection for that; and then his phone provider probably disallows tethering, so he needs separate connections for his different devices (laptop, phone, and possibly a tablet).

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    • (Score: 2) by Celestial on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:50PM

      by Celestial (4891) on Thursday August 04 2016, @06:50PM (#384170) Journal

      1. Home router.

      2. My cell phone

      3. Another cell phone

      4. My notebook when travelling, (which is admittedly rare).

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Friday August 05 2016, @12:16AM

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Friday August 05 2016, @12:16AM (#384315)

    Why would you recommend a VPN provider that responds to DMCA takedown notices?
    This means it is a company based in the US, which means that a NSL (that is almost certainly in effect) completely invalidates any claims of privacy they could possibly make.

    At least, that is my understanding of one important aspect when choosing a VPN provider.