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Comcast tracks user's web browsing
Recording pages, passwords, some credit card numbers used by Internet subscribers decried by privacy advocates.
By Ted Bridis
The Associated Press
Published at http://www.indystar.com
February 13, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Comcast Corp., the nation's third-largest cable company, has begun tracking the Web browsing activities of its 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers without notifying them.
Comcast said Tuesday the tracking of each Web page a subscriber visits was part of a technology overhaul designed to save money and improve the speed of cable Internet service to its customers and was not intended to infringe on privacy.
But technology experts cautioned that the data could be subpoenaed by law enforcement agencies or lawyers in civil cases, and they questioned whether Comcast's move reflects a more cavalier attitude toward privacy after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Comcast provides cable Internet service in the Indianapolis area.
"Once you're sitting on it, you're really inviting all kinds of requests," said David Sobel of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. "If they can't identify a need to be collecting it, they should take the necessary steps to eliminate it."
The company that sold Comcast the technology acknowledged the cable company is collecting too much information.
"It's not needed," said Steve Russell, a vice president for Inktomi Corp. He said Inktomi's software also records passwords for Web sites and some credit card numbers from Comcast subscribers.
Russell discounted privacy concerns, saying engineers are using the information to improve Comcast performance.
Two of the nation's largest Internet providers, America Online and Earthlink, said they do not track the Web browsing of their combined 35 million subscribers.
"We definitely would have no interest in doing that at all," said Earthlink's chief privacy officer, Les Seagraves. "We don't want to have customer records about where they've visited."
AOL uses performance-enhancing technology, similar to that introduced by Comcast, on its network. But, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said, "We do not track the personal Web activity of our members for privacy reasons."
Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick said Web browsing was already being recorded for its subscribers in Detroit and in parts of Delaware and Virginia, and would be extended across the nation by the end of this week.
He acknowledged customers weren't notified.
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