Charter Watcher

Congress takes notice!

Two House Representatives, Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey and Texas Republican Joe Barton, have joined forces and asked Charter to put its spying program on hold! Citing privacy and legal concerns, they have requested that Charter freeze the program until its legality can be determined. Can anyone guess how that will turn out?

From the letter:

As you are likely aware, Section 631 of the Communications Act contains privacy provisions regarding cable operators. The legislative history of Section 631 of the Communications Act of 1934, which was added as part of the Cable Act of 1984, notes that “[c]able systems, particularly those with a “two-way” capability, have an enormous capacity to collect and store personally identifiable information about each cable subscriber.” and that “[s]ubscriber records from interactive systems can reveal details about bank transactions, shopping habits, political contributions, viewing habits and other significant personal decisions.” (see H.Conf.Rep. No. 102-862, 1992 U.S. Code Cong. And Adm. News 1275-76).

It sounds to me like these two just might get it, at least in part. What’s interesting is that Charter’s system is specifically designed to capture exactly the kind of things this letter mentions. Shopping habits are precisely what NebuAD needs to develop your personal advertising profile!

Hopefully Charter will recognize this as a real issue and freeze their program as requested. To be fair, however, we all know that it will only take a couple of suitcases full of cash for Markey and Barton to somehow find what Charter is doing perfectly legal again. The fight goes on.

The full letter is available here. Wired also has coverage here.