Phone and cable ISPs pose a major threat to the privacy of their subscribers and consumers.  They have a growing arsenal of “Big Data” capabilities that eavesdrop on their customers—including families.  Internet Service Providers are gathering data on what we do and where we go, using sophisticated algorithms and predictive analytics to sell our information to marketers.  As CDD documented in a report released last week, ISPs have been on a data bu

Julie Brill faces a formidable task as she tries to balance what she knows are industry-wide practices that undermine privacy with the intense commercial pressures to financially harvest our data.  Whether Julie can successfully act as a one woman privacy truth squad is to early to tell.  She recognizes all the ways that companies take advantage of consumers today, including tracking them on every device and wherever they are.

The digital data “arms race” that is propelling major companies around the world to expand their data collection, consumer profiling, and online targeting capabilities illustrates how information from and about us drives the commercial (and increasingly political) marketplaces.