More ISPs in Privacy Hot Seat Over Deals with NebuAD
The heavy fire drawn over privacy concerns from Internet service provider Charter and targeted advertising company NebuAd was just too much as the two have split their ties. Now the focus remains on what remaining service providers are still dabbling in the area of targeted advertising.
A month ago it was made public that Charter was working with NebuAd to track its users browsing habits to provide more accurate targeted advertising, a move that brings about significant privacy concerns. After pressure from Public Knowledge and Free Press, two digital rights groups, Charter suspended its pilot program with NebuAd, but that isn't the end of this tale.
According to reports, Embarq Corp and CenturyTel Inc, two telephone companies, are also still dabbling in this type of sneaky targeted advertising by working with NebuAd.
Pressure from the media and the organizations was enough to shut down Charter's plans, so one would expect the same to occur with Embarq and CenturyTel. This isn't 1984 and you definitely aren't Big Brother, so cut out the tracking because the collective Internet won't have a problem revolting against shady ISPs looking to make a quick buck by infringing on customers' privacy.
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Even though it has been reported that charter is dropping plans on working with NebuAd, i'm still wary that ISPs are still employing these strategies unaware to consumers. The only way we can have true internet transparency is to give the consumer the power to own the last mile as suggested in this article: Improving Internet Transparency (http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=506&doc_id=154745&F_src=flftwo)