Education New York: Search Items

Cable Companies Target Commercials to Audience

Date Captured

Wednesday March 04 2009, 2:53 PM

NY Times STEPHANIE CLIFFORD [Cablevision matches households to demographic data to divide its customers, using the data-collection company Experian. Experian has data on individuals that it collects through public records, registries and other sources. It matches the name and address of the subscriber to what it knows about them, and assigns demographic characteristics to households. (The match is a blind one: advertisers do not know what name and address they are advertising to, Cablevision executives said.) Advertisers can also give their existing customer lists to Experian, and Experian can make matches — so G.M., for example, could direct an ad based on who already owns a G.M. car. Advertisers are willing to pay premiums for ads that go only to audiences they have selected.]

The Internet Safety Act launches a new battle on privacy

Date Captured

Wednesday February 25 2009, 3:32 PM

The Christian Science Monitor -- Tom Regan [The bill would require almost everyone who provides Internet access to retain all records for two years. Right now, that includes big Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Verizon or Comcast, the coffee shop that offers free wireless access, and me because I have an Internet router set up at home that is accessed by several people. CNET News noted that the day the acts were introduced in Congress, “both the US Department of Justice’s position and legal definition of ‘electronic communication services’ line up with this [broad] interpretation.” Another section of the bill says that anyone who “knowingly engages in any conduct the provider knows or has reason to believe facilitates access to, or the possession of, child pornography” can be tried under the law. More than a few ISPs worry that this broad wording includes the mere act of providing services such as e-mail might “facilitate access” to illegal material.]

2009 Media & Tech Priorities -- A Public Interest Agenda

Date Captured

Monday December 22 2008, 3:48 PM

Free Press Action Fund -- [Obama’s FCC should act quickly to adopt rules preserving Net Neutrality that mirror the legislative effort. These rules should pertain to all wired and wireless networks and should enshrine the FCC’s established four openness principles alongside a necessary fifth principle that prohibits discrimination and pay-for-priority tolls. The FCC should establish an expedited complaint process for violations of the rules and stiff penalties for violators. Finally, the FCC should move to require extensive disclosure of Internet providers’ network management techniques as well as specific information about the quality of the Internet service being purchased by consumers.]

Google Wants Its Own Fast Track on the Web

Date Captured

Monday December 15 2008, 9:27 AM

Wall Street Journal VISHESH KUMAR and CHRISTOPHER RHOADS write [For computer users, it could mean that Web sites by companies not able to strike fast-lane deals will respond more slowly than those by companies able to pay. In the worst-case scenario, the Internet could become a medium where large companies, such as Comcast Corp. in cable television, would control both distribution and content -- and much of what users can access, according to neutrality advocates. The developments could test Mr. Obama's professed commitment to network neutrality. "The Internet is perhaps the most open network in history, and we have to keep it that way," he told Google employees a year ago at the company's Mountain View, Calif., campus. "I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality." But Lawrence Lessig, an Internet law professor at Stanford University and an influential proponent of network neutrality, recently shifted gears by saying at a conference that content providers should be able to pay for faster service. Mr. Lessig, who has known President-elect Barack Obama since their days teaching law at the University of Chicago, has been mentioned as a candidate to head the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the telecommunications industry.]

E P I C A l e r t - Volume 15.13 -- June 27, 2008

Date Captured

Friday June 27 2008, 8:27 PM

Table of Contents -- [1] OECD and Korea Host Ministerial Conference on Future of the Internet [2] Civil Society Seoul Declaration Sets Out Broad Policy Framework [3] FCC: Do-Not-Call List is Permanent [4] Supreme Court Rejects Limits on Freedom of Information Requests [5] Under Pressure, Charter Cable Drops Internet Snooping Plan [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: NAACP v. Alabama, Privacy and Data Protection


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