Tag Archives: Comcast
Cable And Telecom Firms Score A Huge Win In Their War To Kill Municipal Broadband
by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
“ISPs, especially Comcast and AT&T, have lobbied for these restrictions all over the country,” says Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a veteran telecommunications consumer advocate. Read More ›
Cable And Telecom Companies Just Lost A Huge Court Battle On Net Neutrality
by Brian Fung, Washington Post
The court verdict puts to rest — for now — a key question: Whether the Internet represents a vital communications platform that deserves to be regulated with the same scrutiny as the common networks of the past, such as the telephone system. Read More ›
CFC Applauds FCC Move To Protect Broadband Privacy
“Today’s vote is a significant advance for privacy protection. Consumers should decide whether their online activities and other personal data are shared with third-party strangers,” CFC Executive Director Richard Holober said. “It is essential that any final FCC rule prohibits broadband carriers from charging extra for privacy. Privacy is a right that should not be available only to the wealthy.” Read More ›
CFC, Other Groups Urge FCC To Protect Personal Privacy From Internet, Telecom and Cable Companies
The letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler rejects the looser regulatory framework advocated by broadband Internet service providers (ISPs). The ISPs’ approach relies in large part on existing Federal Trade Commission rules that have done little to restrain ISPs’ aggressive mining of their subscribers’ data for marketing purposes, the consumer and privacy groups warn. ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast and Cox can exploit the personal data they amass on Web surfers, cable and streaming television viewers and smartphone users – not just marketing to their own customers but also selling the information to third parties. Read More ›
Comcast Must Pay $33M To Settle Charges It Listed 75,000 Unlisted Phone Numbers
by Ashlee Kieler, Consumerist
The problem arose after Comcast implemented a new process for producing and disseminating listing information for its residential phone customers in late 2009. Under the system, Comcast sent non-published listings to a third-party company, while placing a “privacy flag” on the non-published listings. However, the flag was never attached to approximately 75,000 non-published/non-listed subscribers. As a result, that information – for which customers paid between $1.25 and $1.50 per month to keep unlisted – appeared in certain county phone books for the years of 2010 and 2011.
The issue came to light in 2012 … Read More ›
Comcast Sued For Turning Home Wi-Fi Routers Into Public Hotspots
by Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle
The suit claims the company turns the service on without permission and places “the costs of its national Wi-Fi network onto its customers.” … Tests showed that under heavy use, the secondary channel adds 30 to 40 percent more costs to a customer’s electricity bill than the modem itself, the suit said. The suit also said “the data and information on a Comcast customer’s network is at greater risk” because the hotspot network “allows strangers to connect to the Internet through the same wireless router used by Comcast customers.” Read More ›
Comcast lawsuit shows why mandatory binding arbitration is bad
by Chris Morran, The Consumerist
If Comcast can make broad sweeping changes to the contracts, pricing, availability, for large groups of customers without having to discuss and arbitrate each point, shouldn’t affected subscribers have the ability to file a dispute as a group? Read More ›