The big three cable providers are taking a stand to protect your information, but it may be too little too late
USA today is running
an article about the Cable Communication Policy Act of 1984 -- an act which
requires cable operators to get expressed consent from the user before passing
subscriber information on to third parties, including government
agencies.
Comcast does not "provide the federal government access to customer
(video, Internet or phone calling) records, or the ability to monitor customer
communications, in the absence of valid legal process," a Comcast
spokeswoman told USA Today. However, an amendment to the CCPA1984 in 2001
gave government agencies the right to request internet log information from
cable internet providers. The information shielded by the CCPA1984 only
now pertains to video and VOIP/digital phone services.
AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have all admitted to giving user information to
the National Security Agency supposedly to aid the agency in tracking
terrorists. These companies are not shielded by the CCPA1984 and have a
long history of cooperating with government agencies anyway.
Other VOIP carriers have long standing policies of not providing government
agencies with any data without subpoena, but considering the recent news
"voluntarily mandating" CALEA backdoors at the ISP
level, the stance of the cable providers may already be a moot point.
Obviously, if US government agencies have the ability to monitor ISP
information at the packet level, with or without a subpoena, VOIP and digital
phone services can already be monitored.
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