Is Your Internet Provider Spying on You?

Michael Learmonth, Silicon Valley
Insider
Ever wonder which ISPs and portals are collecting and storing your surfing
data? Thanks to a Congressional committee, you can find out.
The House Committee on Energy and
Commerce sent 34
letters to ISPs and portals last month to find out if any were tracking the Web
activity of users, and if they had disclosed to users they were being watched.
As of Thursday, they'd received 33 responses. They've found that seven ISPs
have quietly started testing a service from ad-targeting
firm NebuAd, which tracks surfers' Web use, with little or no notice to
subscribers. The only company that hasn't yet responded to Congress is
Microsoft (MSFT), but a source close to the committee said Redmond will be filing its letter in the next
few days.
How do ISPs and portals measure up? Check the list below and click on the
link to read their response to Congress.
Quietly used NebuAd to track Web surfing:

• Bresnan
  Communications:
  Billings, Montana. gave email notification


• CableOne:
  Anniston, Alabama. posted notice on their Web
  site


• CenturyTel:
  Kalispell, Montana. gave email notice


• Embarq:
  undisclosed markets. updated privacy policy


• Knology:
  Knoxville, Panama
  City, West Point, Georgia. updated customer
  service agreement


• WOW!:
  Chicago, Detroit,
  Columbus, Cleveland,
  Evansville.
  updated terms of service

• Charter
  Communications:
  aborted a planned test with NebuAd after Congress got interested


• AT&T:
  argues that they should be able to collect data a tt least as detailed as,
  say, Google

• AOL


• Google


• Yahoo

• Comcast


• Cablevision


• Cox


• Earthlink


• Mediacom


• Time
  Warner Cable


• United
  Online


• Verizon


• XO

• Bright
  House Networks


• CBeyond


• Covad


• Frontier


• Insight


• Level3


• PAETEC


• QWest


• RCN


• Suddenlink


• TDS
  Telecom


• TW
  Telecom


• Windstream
  Corp.