The Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) says it will come up with best practices for data collection and privacy online. Its diverse membership includes Public Knowledge, Disney, Cisco, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, and CableLabs.
BITAG says its technical working group will review technical aspects of data collection an privacy and issue a report in early 2018 that includes "appropriate best practices."
BITAG is responding to what it says is a "significant gap" between the perception and reality of data collection practices, much of it focused on "one set of actors"--that would be ISPs rather than the edge, at least in the mind of ISPs like those represented by NCTA.
BITAG says it will take a more holistic look at all those involved, including ISPs, edge providers, ad networks, app developers and equipment manufacturers. IT is looking to inform the discussion with more tech-centered info, essentially its stock in trade.
Lead editors on the report will be Jason Livingood of Comcast and Nick Feamster, a computer science professor at Princeton. Heading up the review will be BITAG Chair Douglas Sicker, chair of the technical working group. He is head of the Engineering and Public Policy Department at Carnegie Mellon.
BITAG is the multistakeholder group formed to find consensus on broadband network management practices and related technical issues and educate policymakers.
(Photo via beachmobjellies' flickr. Image taken on March 24, 2017 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 16x9 aspect ratio.)
