Last week, the U.S. Congress reversed internet privacy rules enacted by the FCC last year and allows ISPs to sell browsing history of their customer to other companies without needing prior permission.
However, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon have all made statements claiming they will not sell your personal web browsing history. 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:
“We do not sell our broadband customers’ individual web browsing history. We did not do it before the FCC’s rules were adopted, and we have no plans to do so”, said Gerard Lewis, Comcast’s chief privacy officer. He added Comcast is revising its privacy policy to make clearer that “we do not sell our customers’ individual web browsing information to third parties”.
Verizon statement.
Verizon does not sell personal web browsing histories and has no plans to do so in the future, said spokesman Richard Young.
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”.
AT&T reiterated its existing privacy policy and said it has no plans to change them:
AT&T says in its privacy statement it “will not sell your personal information to anyone, for any purpose. Period”. In a blog post Friday, AT&T said it would not change those policies after Trump signs the repeal.
While it is well known that President Trump will 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”.
If you are serious with your privacy, and do not trust the statements from the ISPs, then it is better to use a private VPN service.
