You can probably picture that image of a ghastly Mark Zuckerberg sweating bullets testifying in front of Congress in your mind’s eye, with all the pressure that’s been on the questionable behavior of internet giants like Facebook, Google, and the usual Silicon-Valley suspects. And for good reason. But according to a new report by the FTC, many broadband internet service providers have been just as terrible when it comes to consumer data privacy.
Most internet service providers will tell you they don’t sell your data, but what they don’t tell you is they still allow it to be transferred and monetized by other businesses. Any required disclosure of such practices is often hidden in fine print.
According to a recent FTC report, “Many of the ISPs also claim to offer consumers choices about how their data is used and allow them to access such data.” They also stated that, “many of these companies often make it difficult for consumers to exercise such choices and sometimes even nudge them to share even more information.”
What does it matter?
Your internet service provider provides access to the internet, and therefore, all of the data that is transmitted. This is the entirety of your home network, more data than the big tech companies are on the hook for collecting and misusing.
Included in this data is information about any smart devices you own and their behavior on the internet of things like, the websites you browse, and all the sensitive personal information you share with the expectation of privacy over the internet. Yes, we’re talking about your internet history, the apps you use and how you use them, your mobile location data, and even the content of your emails and private messages, sensitive financial information, and health data.
That’s why Softcom does not release any of our customer data outside of the company. Your privacy matters, and we will protect it. Here at Softcom, we can pledge to you that we do not share any data collected from our customers outside of our company for any reason and will never do so in the future.