The responses follows the passage of federal legislation this week allowing internet service providers to sell their customers' web browsing history. The legislation is a reverse of an Obama administration era privacy rule through the Federal Communications Commission.
Regionally, Paul Bunyan Communications stated in a press release that regardless of what the law allows, it won't sell members' web browsing history.
"Our members' privacy is of the utmost importance to our member-owned and governed cooperative," Gary Johnson, the CEO and general manager of Bemidji-based Paul Bunyan Communications, said in the release. "We have never sold member web browsing history and have no plans to do so in the future regardless of what the rules and regulations may allow.
"We feel it is extremely important to reassure our customers that our cooperative will not sell their web browsing history," Johnson said. "Any provider who sells their customers' web browsing history without their consent is putting profits ahead of the trust of its customers and we believe that flies in the face of common decency, customer privacy and certainly our cooperative values and principles."
Other companies across the country made similar statements, such as Comcast.
"We do not sell our broadband customers' individual web browsing history. We did not do it before the FCC's rules were adopted and we have no plans to do so," said Comcast's Chief Privacy Officer Gerard Lewis in a release, according to Reuters Media.
AT&T, meanwhile, said in a statement that the company, "will not sell your personal information to anyone, for any purpose. Period," Reuters reported.
©2017 The Bemidji Pioneer (Bemidji, Minn.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
