Yeah, you better, you... you better tell us how you're misusing people's data, privacy, watchdog suggests to US telcos

The US Federal Trade Commission has asked seven American providers of mobile broadband service to provide details about how they deal with customer and device data. The trade watchdog issued an order [PDF] on Tuesday directing AT&T, AT&T Mobility, Comcast (Xfinity), Google Fiber, T-Mobile US, Verizon, and Cellco Partnership, …

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

"you dirty rat!"

<grammarly-godwin-win>"It's 'you dirtily rat!', you ratty doo-doo!"</grammarly-godwin-win>

[GnuTzu]

Re: "you dirty rat!"

Oh yeah, an online grammar checker? As if I would actually run my writing through a thing like that. Seriously, if I'm using a search engine like Duck Duck Go, I'm sure as hell not going to run an entire corpus of my writing through an online grammar checker.

And yet, YouTube keeps throwing the Grammarly ads at me, no matter how many privacy-related videos I watch--or how many times I click that "skip ad" button. They just never seem to learn. But, that's how marketers think. I suppose I could install an ad blocker for YouTube, but I'm actually amused to see how stupid marketers are.

Oh, and those ads that say my video will play in so many seconds, you know, the ones that don't give you a chance to click "skip ad", I just close those windows as quickly as I can--regardless of whether it's for a product that interests me. I won't put up with advertising that I can't down vote. Those are products that I make a point of not buying--again, even if it's a product category that interests me. Use abusive advertising, and I will hate your product to the end of time. Marketers that think they actually gain something by shoving abusive content down down people's throat, which only infuriates people, need a smack up side the head.

[GnuTzu]

Re: "you dirty rat!"

Wouldn't it be great if YouTube allowed you to block specific products from advertising to you, perhaps with an opportunity to rant about why you would find a product so despicable?

[Anonymous Coward]

The agency suggests it will rely on its remit of going after unfair and deceptive trade practices to punish companies that say one thing then do another, perhaps unaware that industry behavior tends to be disclosed in the lengthy, ambiguous privacy policies that no one actually reads.

More than that, to have any service at all, one must submit to what is described, rather inaccurately, their privacy policy. I refuse to submit thus no phone for me!

As to the sound, I rather thought {crickets} more accurate.

[Blockchain commentard]

Someone tell Trump that illegal immigrants get across the border thanks to the telcos giving out BP telephone telemetry (probably don't but it's big words and will confuse Trump). That'll get a quick executive order solving the problem.

[fidodogbreath]

Too specific

But as EPIC put it, the issue for the FTC Republicans beholden to their corporate overlords is not lack of tools but lack of will.

FTFY

[ma1010]

Once upon a time...

Many years ago, long before anyone had wheelie bins, where I lived the garbage collectors actually came into your back yard to get the garbage out of the cans. I had a dog back there who would bark and snarl and sound like he was about to tear the throat out of any intruder -- while backing away from said intruder until he came up against the corner of the fence, where he stayed. Despite all the sound and fury, he never bit anyone.

Somehow this article reminds me of that dog.