Networking
   Privacy fears stoke ire against Comcast
   By Stefanie Olsen and Rachel Konrad
   Special to ZDNet News
   February 13, 2002, 1:35 PM PT
   TalkBack!
   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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