Analysis: AT&T slams Google; House privacy debate heats up

When we covered the initial responses to a House committee request into online privacy approaches earlier this week, we made special note of how Google took pains to equate ad targeting with the use of deep-packet inspection (DPI) technology.

Turns out AT&T noticed as well.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce added AT&T’s response (dated August 13) to the more than 30 already-posted responses, most of which were made available earlier in the week.

AT&T clearly made use of the time lag to read its competitor’s responses and, in the case of Google, respond directly and forcefully.

“We note that the responses of certain companies such as Google suggest that your inquiry is narrow and focused on a single technology: deep-packet inspection," AT&T said in a footnote to its response, which was signed by Dorothy Attwood, AT&T senior vice president, public policy and chief privacy officer. "We do not read the questions so narrowly. Indeed to do so suggests that the significant policy questions posed here depend on the technology at issue."

That back-and-forth between giants Google and AT&T is in line with our original analysis of the responses, which focused on how rivals seemed to be using the request as an opportunity to frame the scope and issues surrounding ad targeting and privacy in their own favor.

In particular, Web firms like Google focused the negative aspects of the debate on the use of network-based DPI – a technology they don’t use, since they don’t have a network – while minimizing the threat that their massive store of online information poses to consumer privacy, as well as the leading role that their acquisition of ad leader DoubleClick plays in ad targeting.

Meanwhile, telecom firms in their responses tended to shift the focus to Web-based targeting methods – like cookies – again minimizing their role in using such Web-based technology while conveniently ignoring that ad targeting is a crucial part of their future business plans.