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Charter and NebuAd Halt Ad Targeting Plans
US cable operator Charter Communications has postponed controversial plans to capture detailed information about the activities of its Internet subscribers and share it with third-party ad-targeting firm NebuAd.
The halt follows concerns from customers, and a push from a consortium of digital rights groups which last week urged the US Congress to limit the practice of targeting ads to subscribers based on their personal web activities.
'As we do with all new service launches or initiatives, we conducted focus groups well in advance, which told us that most broadband consumers would look upon this service favorably,' Charter said in a statement. 'However, some of our customers have presented questions about this service as well as suggested improvements. As such, we are not moving forward with the pilots at this time.'
The consortium had condemned the plan, which it regards as more invasive than other types of online ad targeting. However, NebuAd says privacy advocates have no cause for concern because its data-gathering practices are anonymous.
NebuAd has met with members of Congress, and says it intends to continue talks with the government, trade groups and privacy groups.
Marvin Ammori, General Counsel of media reform organization Free Press is pleased with Charter's announcement but says that while the plans have been temporarily halted, he foresees dozens of future attempts to use deep packet inspection for commercial advertising.
Charter has given no indication of when it might go ahead with the program.
Web sites: www.charter.com , www.nebuad.com and www.freepress.net .
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