The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that the six largest internet service providers (ISPs) in the U.S. collect and share customers' personal data without providing them with info on how it's used or meaningful ways to control this process. "Many internet service providers (ISPs) collect and share far more data about their customers than many consumers may expect—including access to all of their Internet traffic and real-time location data—while failing to offer consumers meaningful choices about how this data can be used," the FTC said. This was found as part of a study, started in 2019, into the privacy practices of U.S. broadband companies and related entities and how they collect, retain, use, and disclose info about consumers and their devices. The six broadband providers included in FTC's report are AT&T Mobility, Cellco Partnership (aka Verizon Wireless), Charter Communications Operating, Comcast (aka Xfinity), T-Mobile U.S., and Google Fiber. The FTC also included in the study three advertising entities affiliated with these companies: AT&T's Appnexus rebranded as Xandr, Verizon's Verizon Online, and Oath Americas rebranded as Verizon Media. Together, the six companies currently control roughly 98 percent of the nation's mobile Internet market, according to the FTC. The FTC also noted that these tech giants have expanded beyond fixed residential internet and mobile internet services into other areas. By including voice, content, smart devices, advertising, and analytics services, they could further increase the volume of customer data they can collect and share with third parties. Troubling data collection, protection, and sharing practices "The report identified several troubling data collection practices among several of the ISPs, including that they combine data across product lines; combine personal, app usage, and web browsing data to target ads; place consumers into sensitive categories such as by race and sexual orientation, and share real-time location data with third-parties," the FTC said. As the FTC further discovered, the ISPs amass huge pools of sensitive consumer data and use it in ways their customers do not expect and could cause them harm, primarily when classifying them by demographic characteristics, including race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Although many ISPs claim to offer consumers choices, the choices they provide are often a sham, at times nudging them toward even more data sharing. "Even though several of the ISPs promise not to sell consumers personal data, they allow it to be used, transferred, and monetized by others and hide disclosures about such practices in the fine print of their privacy policies," the FTC added. "For example, several news outlets noted that subscribers' real-time location data shared with third-party customers were being accessed by car salesmen, property managers, bail bondsmen, bounty hunters, and others without reasonable protections or consumers' knowledge and consent, according to the report." Furthermore, because of their problematic privacy practices and protections, they can be at least as privacy-intrusive as large advertising platforms, given that they have direct access to their consumers' entire unencrypted internet traffic. Even when connecting to sites that encrypt their traffic or using VPNs, ISPs can still collect the domains their customers connect to and analyze their browsing behavior. Turn to OUR FORUM to learn more.

Microsoft Corp., which has faced pressure from employees and shareholders over contracts with governments and law enforcement agencies, agreed to commission an independent human rights review of some of those deals. The move came in response to a June filing of a shareholder proposal asking the company to evaluate how well it sticks to its human rights statement and related policies. Microsoft committed to a review of any human rights impacts that its products have on those including communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in contracts for police, immigration enforcement, and unspecified other government agencies, according to correspondence from the company viewed by Bloomberg. Microsoft pledged to publish the report next year, and the shareholders, who include faith-based investors like Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, have withdrawn their proposal ahead of Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting next month. Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw confirmed the company will undertake the review. “In response to shareholder requests, Microsoft Corp. will commission an independent, third-party assessment to identify, understand, assess, and address actual or potential adverse human rights impacts of the company’s products and services and business relationships with regard to law enforcement, immigration enforcement, and other government contracts. The assessment will include consultation with BIPOC communities, including immigrants, and other groups representing communities most impacted by Microsoft’s surveillance products, law enforcement, and government contracts,” the company said in a statement. As a government, military and police contracts have become targets of scrutiny and activism, Microsoft employees have circulated letters demanding the company abandons a deal to build versions of its HoloLens augmented reality headsets for the U.S. Army as well raising concerns about business with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has stood behind software sales to the U.S. military, but paused selling facial recognition technology to police departments, although the company sells other programs to law enforcement. The California-based religious order agreed to lead the shareholder proposal because it wanted to make sure the company’s products don’t “cause human rights harms, including perpetuating systemic racial inequities,” Sister Joanne Safian, said in a statement. Microsoft told the investors the review will be conducted by the law firm Foley Hoag LLP. The proposal was filed by Investor Advocates for Social Justice, a nonprofit representing faith-based institutional investors. Microsoft didn’t specify which contracts will be examined, but shareholders “expect” it will include what the group said are about 16 active contracts with ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “This will be an ambitious and complicated process and we’re certainly putting our faith in Microsoft and Foley Hoag to be conscientious,” said Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy organization that worked with IASJ on the proposal. “They’re asking for input from affected rights holders, which was a very big request on our part and they agreed to that.” Human rights concerns have been raised by shareholders in areas related to labor and in the apparel industry around manufacturing conditions but are newer to the technology companies, he said. Open MIC has also made similar requests of Amazon.com Inc., related to its facial recognition technology, as well as Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., and Alphabet Inc., without a positive response from the companies or a win at shareholder meetings, Connor said. Follow this and more by visiting OUR FORUM.