Networking
Privacy fears stoke ire against Comcast
By Stefanie Olsen and Rachel Konrad
Special to ZDNet News
February 13, 2002, 1:35 PM PT
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Comcast's decision under fire Wednesday to stop storing Web users'
data is only the latest dust-up for the cable company that's
struggling to move customers onto its new network after the
Excite@Home bankruptcy.
The cable giant's latest problem stemmed from reports Tuesday that it
had installed software that compiled detailed records of its
customers' Web usage. The software--part of a newly built high-speed
Internet service created since the Excite@Home bankruptcy--was
apparently intended to speed service and cut costs by "caching," or
preloading, sites most requested by its customers.
Stephen Burke, president of Comcast's cable division, said Wednesday
that the company began storing people's Internet Protocol and URL
information six weeks ago when it set up its new network.
"This information has never been connected to individual subscribers
and has been purged automatically to protect subscriber privacy,"
Burke said. "Beginning immediately, we will stop storing this
individual customer information in order to completely reassure our
customers that the privacy of their information is secure."
Although caching procedures are common among Internet service
providers, with data collected usually appearing in aggregate, civil
libertarians and angry customers denounced Comcast for storing the
data.
The data could be subject to subpoena by the government or by parties
in civil litigation, said David Sobel, general counsel for the
Electronic Privacy Information Center. Even if Comcast doesn't use the
data, it might be forced to turn it over to someone else.
"The question is who else will have access to the information once
it's archived and maintained," Sobel said. "That's something that
Comcast, regardless of what they might believe or say, will not have
control over."
The conflict between privacy rights and security issues has come under
renewed scrutiny since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Last year, the
U.S. Senate approved a bill that would give the government greater
liberty to use surveillance technology, including Internet wiretaps,
to combat terrorism.
Privacy compromised?
News of the data tracking this week had some concerned Comcast
subscribers considering whether to continue with the service. David
Zatz, an engineer from the Washington, D.C., area, said he would drop
his Comcast service if the company continued to monitor his Web use in
this way.
"I felt very uneasy that this was going to be going on, and there was
no policy where we were going to be informed about it," he said. "If
it goes through and they continue to do (this) I definitely will be
switching. In my case, Comcast is my only option for broadband, but
I'm not going to put up with that. I'll revert back to 56K."
Comcast stressed that consumers' privacy has not been breached.
"Comcast respects the privacy of all our subscribers and is committed
to fully (protecting) their rights," Burke said. "Comcast has not
shared and will not share personal information about where our
subscribers go on the Web, either for any internal purpose or with any
outside party, except as required by law.
"Consistent with our subscriber agreement and our privacy policy,
which every subscriber acknowledges before receiving our service,
Comcast reviews information in aggregate form only for purposes of
network performance management to ensure an optimal Internet network
experience for our subscribers," he added.
Civil libertarians were quick to point out the contradiction in
Comcast's statement but were pleased with its promise to stop storing
data.
"Either they were collecting (private) data or they weren't," Sobol
said. "Aside from that, pending clarification, if Comcast was saying
it was engaging in the unnecessary collection of consumer data and now
they are no longer doing that, it's obviously a positive development
that reflects the sensitivity that users have when this kind of
activity is made known."
Sobol said that if Comcast had been collecting sensitive data on
consumers, the company might have violated the Communications Act,
legislation that governs the activities of cable companies in the
United States. Because subscribers were not notified of the company's
alleged data-gathering practices, Comcast may have violated a privacy
provision in the Act that requires cable companies to obtain
permission from consumers before collecting personal information, he
said.
As a result, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter to Comcast on
Wednesday asking whether the cable company used its facilities to
gather personal data from consumers online. The letter cited the
general requirement of cable operators to gain "prior written or
electronic consent" to use any personal data collected through
customers' use of a cable service."
"I have concerns about the allegations raised in (recent news) reports
and the nature and extent of any transgressions of the law that may
have resulted in consumer privacy being compromised," stated the
letter from Markey, who belongs to the House Subcommittee on
Telecommunications and the Internet.
Markey's office said it was pleased with Comcast's decision to stop
gathering data.
Comcast has faced a range of thorny issues as a result of the
Excite@Home bankruptcy. Excite@Home, which provided the fiber-optic
backbone for customers whose cable modems were supplied by Comcast,
Cox Communications, AT&T and other providers, declared bankruptcy in
September and is preparing for a total shutdown Feb. 28.
The move hurt financially, with Comcast announcing last week that its
fourth-quarter cash flow fell 3 percent because of the one-time $140
million cost of moving customers to its network. Last fall, Comcast
agreed to pay Excite@Home $160 million to keep its customers on the
Excite@Home network for three months while Comcast switched them over
to its new network.
Missing Excite@Home
And customers are upset at the changes forced upon them by the switch,
from having to change their e-mail addresses to slower connections and
higher fees for the same level of previous service.
The transition from Excite@Home to Comcast and other cable partners'
optical backbones has not been smooth. Although Comcast customers
haven't been nearly as inconvenienced as many former Excite@Home
customers--notably, former AT&T customers--many say they're enduring
slow or flaky connections. Problems resulting from the Excite@Home
collapse have become so widespread that many are clamoring for
government regulation of the nascent broadband sector.
Former Excite@Home customers also worry that many benefits of
Excite@Home will disappear when the transition to Comcast, Cox and
other cable partners is complete at the end of the month. Few cable
partners provide connections as fast as Excite@Home provided, and many
customers are grumbling about connection speeds that are roughly half
of those offered by their former provider.
"I cannot, in all consciousness, pay the premium price that Comcast is
commanding for a crippled ISP," computer consultant and Comcast
cable-modem customer Eric Guy wrote in an e-mail. "I would expect to
see many of (Comcast's) current and future customers reconsidering
their broadband provider."
Comcast has also angered small-business owners, telecommuters and
others who use their cable modem to connect to office networks using
virtual private network (VPN) software. Excite@Home allowed the more
secure VPN access, but Comcast does not. Customers can get it as a
business service for $95 a month instead of $39--an almost threefold
increase that many small-business owners and telecommuters are loath
to pay.
Comcast has also upset subscribers by saying it will not provide
access to Usenet newsgroups, a sprawling bulletin board system where
thousands of groups, dedicated to every imaginable interest, trade
everything from technical information to copyrighted movie files.
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