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Charter tracks user activity even if users opt out
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 08:08:08 -0400
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org> Date: May 20, 2008 9:24:16 PM EDTTo: David Farber <dave () farber net>, Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org >, Fergie <fergdawg () netzero net>Subject: Charter tracks user activity even if users opt out
Via The Consumerist:UPDATE: Charter Will Track Your Internet Activity Regardless Of Whether You Opt Outhttp://consumerist.com/tag/privacy/?i=5009976&t=update-charter-will-track-your-internet-activity-regardless-of-whether-you-opt-out Excerpt: When a customer clicks a link, advertisement, or visits a page, Charter will capture the browsing data and send it to the third-party advertising provider. If Charter wanted to offer a functional opt-out, it would be at this deep-packet inspection level. The do not offer a way out of that service,however. The only thing they offer is the cookie-based solutionyou've previously covered, which *merely tells the third-partyorganization not to match the machine with the DPI-harvested dataor deliver the advertising*. Customer browsing is still being captured and is still being turned over regardless of anyone's individual opt-out status, but the third party is just blocked from doing anything with it by the cookie.I might also point out that by doing this *Charter is explicitlyrequesting that their customers choose not to follow safe browsing best practices.* [...] I'm not sure "the third party is just blocked from doing anything with it by the cookie" is entirely accurate, however; I think "the third party is supposed to honor the cookie and not supposed to use the dataand not supposed to match the data against the machine" may be more likely.---Rsk
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- Charter tracks user activity even if users opt out David Farber (May 21)