Comcast Phone's Default Opt-in for Marketing
I was just thinking the other day about how people make such a big deal about the online marketing practices of website operators and their privacy policies and the fact that it's odd that the same attention is not paid to their brick and mortar counterparts.
Here's what I mean. If a website had a default that opted customers in to receiving marketing communications, consumers would be up in arms. Pizza Hut's forced opt-in is an easy example of that [Consumerist ("Pizza Hut Forces You to Opt-In to Spam Marketing When Ordering Online")]. But companies engage in the very same practice in the bricks and mortar channel all the time.
A few months ago I switched my Vonage subscription to Comcast. After the switch, I noticed an inordinately high volume of telemarketing calls and a higher volume of junk mail. My name is frequently misspelled, and Comcast billing has a particular spelling of my name that's different from the other providers. So I was surprised to get "welcome to the neighborhood" mailings addressed to "Vencat Subramani". Surprised, and sort of ticked off. I thought about whether I had clicked through a terms of service which authorized Comcast to sell my information/address and I hadn't. Then I realized that Comcast didn't really make me agree to any sort of terms of service in advance of authorizing the installation.
After digging around a few minutes, I found the terms of service which Comcast provided after the installation (maybe even in the mail). Sure enough, that policy defines the term CPNI "customer proprietary network information," and states that Comcast:
would like your approval so that we, our agents, affiliates, joint venture partners, and independent contractors may use this CPNI to tell you about communications-related services other than those to which you currently subscribe . . . . IF YOU APPROVE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE ANY ACTION.
Oddly enough, this language is opposite to the privacy policy (for cable/phone, etc.) which can be found online ("2008 Comcast Customer Privacy Notice"):
We would like your approval so that we, our agents, affiliates, joint
venture partners, and independent contractors may use this CPNI to let
you know about communications-related services other than those to
which you currently subscribe that we believe may be of interest to
you. IF YOU APPROVE, YOU MUST AFFRIMATIVELY TELL US BY OPTING IN TO
THIS USE OF CPNI. You may approve (and later deny or withdraw a prior
approval) our right to use your CPNI for this purpose by calling the
numbers listed below.
Comcast's "Independent Contractors". That could be just about anyone!Comcast's privacy policy and its marketing opt-in practices are fairly problematic on a variety of levels. The discrepancy between the paper privacy policy and the online version is one place to start.
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