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Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
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  • Pretty Hate Machine

    • 8 out of 10
    • Nine Inch Nails
    • For years I wanted to make music that sounded like something between Love and Rockets and Ministry. In 1989, Trent Reznor beat me to it with this genre-defining album, and it smacked me upside the hea
  • Odyssey Number Five

    • 10 out of 10
    • Powderfinger
    • Guitar-driven rock out of Australia, Powderfinger has not seen much exposure in the States, but should get a nod for their toe-tapping songs. Building off their previous release, "Internationalist" (
  • Is This It

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Strokes
    • The Strokes set the music world on fire with this 2001 album, with headlines declaring that the New York band was here to save Rock and Roll. While the band hasn't made as much of a splash since t

  • War of the Worlds

    • 10 out of 10
    • Jeff Wayne
    • With the new movie adaptation of H.G Wells' classic Sci Fi invasion tale, War of the Worlds, currently on theater screens everywhere, there's new interest in Jeff Wayne's rock opera version, and it is
  • King James Version

    • 4 out of 10
    • Harvey Danger
    • The sophomore effort from Harvey Danger, I was really looking forward to this followup to "Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?" Unfortunately, "King James Version" failed to deliver any of the bri

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News

AT&T Wants to Exploit Customers’ Web Activity

AT&T is mulling over the idea of monitoring its customers’ surfing habits for those who use the company as their ISP, according to the New York Times on Thursday. While it has not yet done so, the company pointed to practices by Google in defense of its plans. However, if it does move forward, AT&T said it would do the right thing and require an "opt-in."

The practice is anticipated for customers who use AT&T as their ISP, and no mention of iPhone or other AT&T smartphone web browsers was made. Given Apple’s historical concern over customer privacy and location services "opt-in" actions, that may not be on AT&T’s radar right away for iPhone users.

The AT&T statements were part of a response to an inquiry from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce after reports that some ISPs, including Charter Communications, was going to sell detailed logs of their customer’s Web surfing activities to an advertising company called NebuAd.

Charter has put it’s plans on hold. In its response to the House Committee, the company said it was going to use an "opt-out" approach -- the customer would have to actively ask not to be included. [However, those notifications are seldom put in a single postal letter and sent to the customer. The provision is often simply buried deep in the fine print of a service agreement.]

Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and AOL responded to the committee and said that they don’t monitor customer activity on sites that they don’t run.

Dorothy Attwood, AT&T’s senior vice president for public policy, provided a spirited defense of behavioral targeting, and claimed that their potential plans would benefit customers "online experience while protecting their privacy."

Recently, the FCC has been monitoring ISPs, particularly Comcast, for adherence to Net Neutrality principles. Now, the federal government also appears to be keenly interested in the proper utilization, possibly sale of Internet users’ surfing habits. Even though that surfing profile is a big advertising prize, the principle of "opt-in" is being seen as a way to both protect privacy and satisfy those voracious advertisers.

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