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TomS_
Git-r-done
MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK

TomS_ to gunther_01

MVM

to gunther_01

Re: [Bus. Ops] Are you an Wireless ISP looking for more revenue?

said by gunther_01:

something you don't understand, nor care to want to understand

Some of us understand it perfectly well. No need to be insulting.
bburley
join:2010-04-30
Cold Lake, AB

bburley

Member

I am not going to take sides on this particular issue. It is certainly possible that this company is not doing anything more evil than tracking sales and accumulating marketing data. What large and/or Internet retailer doesn't do that these days.

What does disturb me is the overall trend. Pressure from stockholders and rising operating costs tend to drive various companies further to the evil side in search of profit. The line that is drawn between a reasonable service and invasive data mining for something new to sell becomes fluid and moveable.

Facebook is just one example. It appears that outrageous Terms of Service are not really defeated, they just take longer to implement. The new phrase "You are the product" seems here to stay.
gunther_01
Premium Member
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL

gunther_01 to TomS_

Premium Member

to TomS_
said by TomS_:

said by gunther_01:

something you don't understand, nor care to want to understand

Some of us understand it perfectly well. No need to be insulting.

Except I'm some how selling my soul by making money.. That's alright though?

I would say bburley has it the most accurate. We are getting paid by allowing the retailer to gather marketing data from our customers. NOT, sell them more, via pop up ads. Not sending them to web sites they don't or didn't want to go to in the first place.

The premise is sound. It's sponsored by the retailer the customer is using anyway. And it doesn't violate any kind of privacy act in any way, because we aren't allowing anyone access to personal information. Only the company who already knows about the purchase (since you are buying from them any way) knows anything personal about you and/or your purchase. AND, it can be bypassed if someone doesn't like it by changing DNS servers on their PC.
BlueC
join:2009-11-26
Minneapolis, MN

2 recommendations

BlueC

Member

said by gunther_01:

Except I'm some how selling my soul by making money.. That's alright though?

I would say bburley has it the most accurate. We are getting paid by allowing the retailer to gather marketing data from our customers. NOT, sell them more, via pop up ads. Not sending them to web sites they don't or didn't want to go to in the first place.

The premise is sound. It's sponsored by the retailer the customer is using anyway. And it doesn't violate any kind of privacy act in any way, because we aren't allowing anyone access to personal information. Only the company who already knows about the purchase (since you are buying from them any way) knows anything personal about you and/or your purchase. AND, it can be bypassed if someone doesn't like it by changing DNS servers on their PC.

I feel you are missing the point. You're operating a private network, right? Your customers are leasing access on this said network. These customers assume the traffic traveling over your network is only being monitored/accessed by you as an ISP.

The minute you start allowing 3rd parties to have access to customer data traveling over your network, it opens the door to other things.

I guess we view the role of an ISP differently. I personally believe an ISPs role is to provide their customers with access to the internet and maintaining exactly that. It would be the same as a phone provider allowing 3rd parties to gain access to information of your phone usage. It doesn't sit right with me, I wouldn't do it to my own customers.

That's simply my opinion on the matter. While you may disagree, I would imagine some of your customers would side with my viewpoint.
bburley
join:2010-04-30
Cold Lake, AB

1 recommendation

bburley

Member

When I said I wasn't going to take sides, I meant that I wasn't going to declare this particular company any more evil than what it says it is doing.

But I do agree with BlueC, and I would not attach this type of company to the network that I look after.