One of the largest providers of broadband internet in the United States is of the opinion that customers who want more privacy should pay more money. It informed the FCC that it should be allowed to charge more if users demand more privacy. In its filing with the FCC, the company argues that it should be considered a “perfectly acceptable” business practice to charge money if they want to opt out of advertising that’s targeted to them.
The FCC has been busy with creating new privacy rules for broadband which will make it mandatory for ISPs to disclose what user information they are collecting and selling to advertisers, while also providing users with opt-out tools. FCC is also concerned with actions of some ISPs that appear as if they want to make online privacy a premium option.
“A bargained-for exchange of information for service is a perfectly acceptable and widely used model throughout the U.S. economy, including the Internet ecosystem, and is consistent with decades of legal precedent and policy goals related to consumer protection and privacy,” Comcast argues in its filing, adding that banning it from doing so would actually harm consumers by “depriving them of lower-priced offerings.”
Comcast won’t be the first ISP to do this because AT&T is already doing this. It runs a deep packet inspection program called Internet Preferences which tracks users’ browsing habits and uses that to deliver targeted advertisements. AT&T customers who want to opt out of this program have to pay $30 or more every single month.