Comcast Want To Offer Discounts For People Who Share Their Online Activity

How much do you like a discount? With the topic of using your internet activity to provide “personalized” services arguing against those who believe that what you do online is private, companies and governments are still trying to determine what is considered acceptable for companies to use. Comcast has now recommended to the FCC that companies should be able to use your browsing information in exchange for discounts.

The recommendation follows AT&T “Internet Preferences” program, offering people the option to save at least $29 a month in exchange for letting them analyze your search and browsing to deliver personalized ads to websites. While Comcast currently doesn’t have a program in place the company seems to be revealing their hand and saying that they would like to run one in the future.

Comcast stated in their filing with the FCC that any bans on such an agreement “would harm consumers by, among other things, depriving them of lower-priced offerings”. This seems to be backed by the FTC Commissioner who stated that “such a ban may prohibit ad-supported broadband services and thereby eliminate a way to increase broadband adoption”.

Comcast doesn’t seem too optimistic after arguing that the FCC “has no authority to prohibit or limit these types of programs”. The FCC recently ruled that before companies could share customers browsing habits with third party companies they would need the customer to opt into the usage.

Do you think that you would give up your online activity for a discount? Should companies be allowed to sell your online activity in exchange for a discount?