Some news makes you cringe, and some make you smile. For many of us, Charter's most recent moves are sure to make us smile. If you recall, earlier this month we heard about Charter Communications planning to unleash a targeted advertisement system upon their customers, one that would see Internet ads replaced on the fly by ads they deem more appropriate. They claimed it would be anonymous, but of course the fallout of that news was severe. So severe that for now Charter has opted to suspend the program due to concerns over privacy.
They cite privacy fears as the reason for the hold back. Interestingly, though, they also claim that the program was the result of focus groups that led them to believe most customers would look upon it "favorably". I don't know who would favor an ISP mangling the Internet for you as opposed to just delivering you service, and it seems many major ISPs are finding out the hard way that it isn't true. There is no mention of how long the program will be "on hold".