Just a few days after Congress reversed internet privacy rules enacted during the Obama administration, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon have all made statements claiming they will not sell personal web browsing histories.
A report from Reuters notes that the communication and intent to clarify privacy policies from the major ISPs comes after much outrage on social media over the last week.
Here is Comcast’s statement:
Verizon shared the same and additional details on how it does sell de-identfied and aggregated information.
He added Comcast is revising its privacy policy to make more clear that “we do not sell our customers’ individual web browsing information to third parties.”
AT&T reiterated its existing privacy policy and said it has no plans to change them:
Verizon privacy officer Karen Zacharia said in a blog post Friday the company has two programs that use customer browsing data. One allows marketers to access “de-identified information to determine which customers fit into groups that advertisers are trying to reach” while the other “provides aggregate insights that might be useful for advertisers and other businesses.”
While President Trump is expected to sign the repeal, this past week 46 Senate Democrats urged Trump not to sign the bill, arguing most Americans “believe that their private information should be just that.’”
Whether you’re still skeptical of your ISP and its ability to sell your information even if it says it won’t, or are just interested in staying more secure in general, we recently took a look at how a VPN can help. As Ben Lovejoy mentioned, one potentially comical aspect of all this is Cards Against Humanity creator Max Tempkin vowing to buy and publish the browsing history of every congressman.
Image: The Huffington Post
