[Infowarrior] - Cable firms: Law protects customers

[Richard Forno]

(Wonder if this will be used as a marketing tool for those who don't
understand that VOIP is no more private than the POTS.....rf)

Cable firms: Law protects customers
Updated 5/11/2006 11:26 PM ET
By David Lieberman, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2006-05-11-cable-privacy_x.
htm

NEW YORK ‹ Leading cable operators say a 1984 federal law would stop them
from handing customer calling records to the National Security Agency the
way AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have, as reported Thursday in USA TODAY.

The phone giants agreed after Sept. 11, 2001, to create a database of
customer calling logs to help the NSA find terrorists, according to the
report.

Comcast, the largest operator, doesn't "provide the federal government
access to customer (video, Internet or phone calling) records, or the
ability to monitor customer communications, in the absence of valid legal
process" such as a court order or search warrant, says spokeswoman D'Arcy
Rudnay. Time Warner and Cox also said that it would take such an order for
them to give the government such access.

The cable operators said that Congress, in its Cable Communications Policy
Act in 1984, explicitly required operators to get subscriber consent before
collecting "personally identifiable information" or disclosing it to third
parties. The act lets them disclose information to the government in
response to a court order, although customers must be notified and allowed
to contest it if it involves video programming. The act also lets companies
gather data without consent to provide customer service.

In addition, the cable industry has a history of opposing government
regulation.

"There are probably good reasons the NSA would go to the phone companies
instead of the cable companies," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of
the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "There isn't a tradition (in
cable) of turning over customer records."

Congress extended the cable privacy rules to satellite subscribers in a 2004
law. "They took the cable statute and substituted the words 'satellite
operator' for 'cable provider,' " says DirecTV associate general counsel
Chris Murphy.

But cable operators said the government has made it more difficult to apply
the privacy standards set in 1984 when they just offered video, to their
Internet and phone services.

Congress in 2001 amended the Cable Act to make it jibe with their Electronic
Communications Privacy Act, which requires Internet providers to obey a
government order to turn over data about Web habits without informing the
subscriber.

With phone service, the Federal Communications Commission "has not yet said
what the privacy policy would be," says National Cable & Telecommunications
Association general counsel Neal Goldberg. "We've suggested (the Cable Act)
requirements. We're used to them. We know how to operate under them. At a
minimum, we've said, don't impose inconsistent or conflicting requirements."

Among third-party companies offering phone capability via broadband, Skyype
had no comment. Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz said, "Our position on this
issue as it relates to Vonage is pretty clear. We don't supply any
government authority with call record data or any sensitive customer
information without a subpoena."

Contributing: Edward C. Baig