Does Your ISP Sell Your Internet History? Help 27B Investigate

Following a recent revelation that unnamed Internet Service Providers sell anonymized logs of their customers' internet usage, 27B asked ten of nation's largest ISPs to clarify what user information they store and/or sell. To date, AOL, AT&T, Cox have responded. Verizon promised to have answers by last Friday, but blew that deadline. 27B reader Greg contacted Canadian ISP Shaw Cable, which classified its practices as secret.

We are collecting the answers in an online spreadsheet, but it's currently home to too many empty cells.

Those white spaces are where you come in. We're asking those of you who are customers of the non-responsive ISPs to call, write, FTP or IM or Twitter your ISP and ask them to clarify how they use, store or even sell data about you. Report the results back and we'll add it to the spreadsheet.

Contact information for the heretofore silent ISPs, the list of questions to ask, and as well as a regularly updated spreadsheet of the answers 27B and readers have gotten are after the jump.

Charter Communications: Email 1-888-GET CHARTER

Comcast: Email 1-800-266-2278

Earthlink: Email DSL 888-829-8466 Dial-Up 888-327-8454

Verizon: Email 800-567-6789 Speakeasy: Online 800-556-5829

Qwest: Online

United Online: NetZero Juno

The questions are below and feel free to call or email. Drop your results in the comments or email ryan SHIFT2 ryansingel.net.

What kind of information does ISP NAME collect on its customers' Internet use?

How long does ISP NAME store data on its subscribers' internet usage?

What are the policies for storing clickstream data? What about e-mail and instant message usage? FTP or bittorrent usage?

How long are logs of what IP addresses were assigned to which customer kept?

What data security precautions protect the information ISP NAME collects?

Does ISP NAME sell internet usage data? What kind of data? If so, how is it anonymized and to whom do you sell it? What language in your privacy policy discloses this?

If not, what portions, if any, of your privacy policy specifically prohibit this?

Has ISP NAME been contacted or in communication with the Justice Department about data retention?

Congress may contemplate mandatory data retention rules for ISPs and other large internet companies. What is ISP NAME's position on such legislation and is the company lobbying Congress on this issue?

Does ISP NAME require federal, state and local agencies to provide subpoenas, court orders, or national security letters to get data from ISP NAME, or does company policy allow law enforcement and other government agencies to get data based only on a request?

Photo: hobvias sudoneighm