Last month, the ranking members of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), sent a letter to Charter CEO Neil Smit. That letter took issue with Charter's decision to sell user browsing history to NebuAD in order to deliver tailored ads (a "service" Charter claims is as good as delivering faster speeds). The letter asked Charter to put a hold on the project since it's not clear it's even legal.

The shoddy opt-out process used by NebuAD could run afoul of several laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA); the Communications Act of 1934; and the Cable TV Privacy Act of 1984. A group of fifteen consumer advocacy organizations today sent a letter (pdf) to Markey and Barton in support of their push to ensure ISPs are following the law.

We are concerned that such ISP wiretapping schemes may violate multiple privacy laws and policies.

An investigation will discover what we already know: NebuAD's cookie-based opt-out process doesn't work: it stops targeted ad delivery, but it doesn't actually opt you out of having your information gathered and sold. But it would be useful to see independent confirmation of NebuAD's claims that personal identifiers are "anonymized" (such claims are made quite often but frequently aren't true).

Should an investigation occur, you'll likely see privacy advocates push the government to mandate that these kind of services must be "opt in" instead of "opt out." But something tells me Uncle Sam doesn't have the un-lobbied chops to inform the $11 billion online advertising industry and broadband ISPs that their shiny new revenue stream is going to be leashed.