The nation's largest broadband providers hope industry guidelines calling for consumer opt-in regimes will stave off new Internet privacy laws. AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner deny using deep packet inspection.The
summer of NebuAd ended Sept. 25 with the nation's largest broadband
providers scrambling to tell Congress there is no need for new laws to
protect user privacy. Instead, they insisted to lawmakers, industry
guidelines calling for opt-in regimes were the answer to intrusive
behavioral advertising.
Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner also said they do not employ
behavioral advertising and have no current interest in tracking users'
Web travels in order to serve up targeted advertising. If they decided
to use behavioral advertising models, the broadband providers said,
they would allow users to opt in to the program.
"AT&T does not today engage in online behavioral advertising,
but we understand the uniquely sensitive nature of this practice,"
Dorothy Attwood, AT&T's chief privacy officer, told the Senate
Commerce Committee.
Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president of public affairs,
policy and communications, added, "Any technology that is used to track
and collect consumer online behavior for the purposes of targeted
advertising --regardless of which company is doing the collecting --
should only be used with the customer's knowledge and consent."
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