A seldom known page on Comcast’s Xfinity website was exposing customers’ account information to anyone — or any app — on a customer’s network. An anonymous security researcher dropped ZDNet an email, explaining that an API used by the internet giant could be tricked into returning customer data, including account numbers, a customer’s home address …
Comcast and AT&T are now promising gigabit-speed broadband service to much of Bloomington, but the way each internet service provider do so will be very different. The Wednesday night news of Comcast’s statewide Xfinity Gigabit service came just hours before AT&T announced its Internet 1000 launch in Bloomington and other Indiana markets. While both companies …
The FCC’s rules prohibit Comcast and other companies from charging customers for services they didn’t explicitly sign-up for. In other words, just because you didn’t say “no” to a service or a piece of equipment doesn’t mean your telco can charge you for it. But according the settlement, customers were in some cases charged for …
Corwin: ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade passed secret resolutions, used NSA spy leaks as “false premise” to strip control from U.S. Philip Corwin, Founding principal of Virtualaw LLC, and ICANN watchdog for the Internet Commerce Association, spoke out recently at the 49th ICANN meeting. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is in charge of assigning …
Netflix’s internet provider claims Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner are causing streaming bottlenecks (update). Having trouble streaming “House of Cards?” A stand-off involving Verizon and Netflix may be to blame. Streaming speeds for Verizon FiOS customers dropped by 14% between December and January, according to Netflix. Meanwhile, Netflix speeds on most other Internet service providers …
There is nothing wrong with the Netflix-Comcast deal. It’s no violation of net neutrality. But it illustrates the fragile nature of innovation on the Internet, and it’s a problem that only government regulation can solve. Comcast customers who also subscribe to Netflix should applaud a deal between the two companies reported this weekend, wherein Netflix …
For the past two decades, the Internet has operated as an unregulated, competitive free market. Given the tendency of networked industries to lapse into monopoly—think of AT&T’s 70-year hold over telephone service, for example—that’s a minor miracle. But recent developments are putting the Internet’s decentralized architecture in danger. In recent months, the nation’s largest residential …
Several groups from the entertainment industry have teamed up with five major American Internet service providers to create something called the Copyright Alert System. The system aims to educate and dissuade consumers from participating in illegal methods of sharing copyrighted materials online. It’s a new effort by entertainment companies to keep people buying what they …