Are Embarq & CenturyTel still tracking subscriber Web use?
Charter Communications Tuesday said it had dropped its plans to test online advertising company NebuAd’s web-use tracking technology because of concerns raised by its customers. But two telcos that recently competed the testing are on the fence as to whether they plan on moving forward with web tracking programs. “We are not currently using behavioral targeting tools and have not decided whether to move forward with them, either through NebuAd or with any other vendor,” said Embarq spokeswoman Debra Peterson. CenturtyTel spokesman Tony Davis, said it was his understanding that the reaction to Charter’s proposed test had to do with cable industry regulations that don’t apply to a phone company, saying “At this point it’s not affecting our thinking.” NebuAd collects data on Web users’ interests by tracking the sites they visit, passing it along to online advertising companies so they can display more relevant ads on Web sites. Charter’s plan drew fire from privacy advocates and forced th
