Sherry Chandler » Net Neutrality Anyone?
Net Neutrality Anyone?
From yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle:
AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers’ personal data with government officials.
The new policy says that AT&T — not customers — owns customers’ confidential info and can use it “to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.”
The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service — something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.
Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service — a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers’ recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.
The company’s policy overhaul follows recent reports that AT&T was one of several leading telecom providers that allowed the National Security Agency warrantless access to its voice and data networks as part of the Bush administration’s war on terror.
Sez Have Coffee Will Write, where I found the link:
And now that [AT&T] has completed the resurection of Ma Bell with the reabsorbtion of Bell South, the bitch is back and she’s kickin’ ass and takin’ names.
Do we really want the telephone companies in control of the internet?
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1 Comment
1. Hands Off The Internet replies at 23rd June 2006, 2:31 pm :
If our other option is the FCC? You bet. At least the telecom companies can be influenced by market forces and customer feedback, something that will never impact the FCC. To me, the moment we take control of the internet out of the hands of private industry and put it into the hands of the government, we start ourselves down a dark road from which there is no return. The internet will forever be regulated in the annals of the Washington bureaucracy, bogged down in red tape, and completely untouchable.
The alternative, and, I might add, the status quo, is to leave the internet as-is, leaving private enterprise in control of the internet, and thus allowing the consumers to influence the way the internet is run through the voting power of their wallets. Don’t like the way your ISP is treating you? Don’t like the way your ISP handles internet service? Call em up, tell em where to stick your account, and call their competitor who’ll do things they way you want. It’s supply and demand, and it’s worked in this country for over 200 years.
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