AT&T, Comcast and Verizon strike out against internet privacy backlash

The major internet service providers made announcements that essentially assured users that their browser histories were safe with them.

On Friday, Comcast published a lengthy statement that read, in part:

There has been a lot of misleading talk about how the congressional action this week to overturn the regulatory overreach of the prior FCC will now permit us to sell sensitive customer data without customers’ knowledge or consent. This is just not true. In fact, we have committed not to share our customers’ sensitive information (such as banking, children’s, and health information), unless we first obtain their affirmative, opt-in consent.

Our privacy commitments to our customers go even beyond this protection of sensitive information that has dominated the dialogue this week. If a customer does not want us to use other, non-sensitive data to send them targeted ads, we offer them the ability to opt out of receiving such targeted ads.