Charter Watcher

We won!

June 25, 2008 8:21 am Jesse Doublespeak

As of yesterday Charter has suspended their illegal wiretapping program with NebuAD over privacy concerns. Reuters has the story here. The fight isn’t over though, because companies like Charter never stop looking for ways to make money (which is understandable), and sometimes those methods stomp all over you and I.

From the article:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. cable television operator Charter Communications is suspending a program that would offer advertisers ways to target pitches at people based on what they search for on the Internet.

“As we do with all new service launches or initiatives, we conducted focus groups well in advance, which told us that most broadband consumers would look upon this service favorably,” Charter said on Wednesday.

“However, some of our customers have presented questions about this service as well as suggested improvements,” it said. “We will continue to take a thoughtful, deliberate approach with the goal to ultimately structure an advertising service that enhances the Internet experience for our customers and addresses questions and concern they’ve raised.”

How about that doublespeak, eh? Allow me to translate: “We thought that if we misled a bunch of specifically-chosen non-technical people in a focus group and got them to go along with the program, that we could just tout those results and slip it in without anyone noticing. Unfortunately we didn’t count on the massive customer and privacy group backlash, so we’re canning the program until we can find a more clever way to put it in without your noticing.”

Note that they’re not completely nixing the program, just suspending it. That means that it’ll be back, and with a company other than NebuAD. My guess is that since NebuAD just got outed as Gator 2.0, Charter is cutting and running until they can find someone else. And next time you can bet your bottom dollar that they won’t send out subscriber notifications or dispatch Ted Schremp to spread misinformation about the program.

I read an article yesterday about Allot communications, a company that makes deep packet inspection systems for ISP’s and NebuAD-type companies. As you may recall, one of NebuAD’s employees is a former senior engineer for that company. Since the DPI hardware is being manufactured by a company other than NebuAD, Charter will find it easy to pick up a new advertising provider using the same technology.

I’ll bet that Charter just moves everything in-house, which will eliminate the majority of the legal questions that have been raised in the last few months. Why use NebuAD when you can just buy a couple of Allot boxes and do it yourself?

No matter how you look at it, though, this is good news. We’ve won! Our privacy is safe for another day, and Charter has been made to eat a loss on this program.

To everyone who contacted me, and especially to everyone who contacted Charter, their representatives, and oversight bodies, thank you.

More coverage can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.