Marketers, ISPs Fight To Prevent Privacy Protection Laws > Aren't these systems opt-in already?

reply to jaminus

Re: Aren't these systems opt-in already?

I meant that when you use Google or Facebook or some sort of free website, then information mining shouldn't be illegal. ISP tracking is going too far, but it's s only one element of the overall behavioral advertising debate. It's doubtful that Congress would be so modest as to enact narrow legislation that applies just to ISPs.

Aggregate anonymized data is fine. There is nothing wrong with giving this data to a third party.

But I think they want to go much further than just aggregate data. They want individual browsing habits in REAL TIME with the ability to connect to the user for advertising purposes. Such as monitoring which IP you have and always linking your past and current browsing records to your current ip. So webpages running ads for them can relay the ip and receive a targeted ad to display. That is a very scary thing. It also means the ad agency has everything on file they need to identify you and most likely wouldn't give two shits about giving this information up to someone like the RIAA.

Like say an anonymous web comment makes the news for being offensive and the idiot offended is subpoenaing the web page for the IP address and time associated with the comment. The web page could have a privacy policy where they do not store identifying information. But if some third party company data mines everything you do online, all the offended person has to do is go to the ad company and have them run a query for the text and find the source IP and time of the posting that way. There is no chance a third party company is going to fight such a request or even care if the original web page involved had a privacy policy claiming IPs would not be logged.

reply to jaminus
"Jaminus"

You completely missed the entire point.

We are not rallying against the idea of behavioral advertising.

It's the fact that it SHOULD BE opt-in ONLY.
Broadband consumers should NEVER have to be forced into this, it is absolutely wrong, and you know it.

Nobody forces you to use google.

There's an argument to be made that when you send packets over your ISP, unless otherwise specified, you should assume any plaintext data will be used by your ISP for marketing purposes.

That doesn't mean that we're all doomed to have our ISPs tracking our every move. As long as people reject ISPs that do this sort of thing, there will be some providers that choose to go after the "privacy-conscious" consumer. And for those that don't have such ISPs as choices, encrypted tunnels make absolutely everything obfuscated--including URLs and keywords.

Now, the current state of broadband means the normal market response to privacy violators may not function properly. The solution to this is not more laws, but more choices. That means taking away power from oppressive franchise boards and freeing up the airwaves for entrepreneurial start-ups.