spying

John informs us of the following:

Charter High-Speed Internet service customers in the greater Worcester area, and other parts of the country, recently got a letter from Joe Stackhouse, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations. It announces an "enhancement" coming soon to customers' web browsing experience. This "enhancement" will change the ads displayed on web sites to "better reflect the interests you express through your web-surfing activities". This means that Charter will monitor and record all your web surfing activity. After tracking you, Charter will replace the ads on web sites you visit with ads Charter wants you to see.

You can't stop Charter from monitoring and recording all your web surfing. They do offer an opt out to this service "enhancement" - all that will do is tell Charter you don't want them replace the ads on web sites you visit. To opt out you need to visit a Charter web page and provide Charter with your name and address - yet another way for Charter to watch you and your internet activities. The opt out web page states "... if you delete your cookies or cache files, use a different computer, buy a new computer, or use a different web browser from the one you are using at this time, you will have to opt-out again. It is also important to remember that opting out does not mean that you will no longer receive Internet advertisements, it simply means you will no longer receive ads that are tailored to your Web preferences, usage patterns and commercial interests."

The letter closes out by saying "Charter is committed to offering the highest quality service to our customers". Is tracking customers internet activity and providing ads Charter want customers to see "the highest quality service" Charter has to offer?

Just what we need, less privacy and more ads thrown at us.Thanks John.

[Editor's notes: A reader sends in this December article from the Wall Street Journal about CenturyTel, "Watching What You See on the Web." Also relevant Slashdot threads from last June and this February. And here's Worcester's cable contract (PDF).]]