A. Privacy rights of subscribers.
1. As used in this Section, "valid authorization" means written approval from the subscriber.
2. Each grantee shall strictly observe and protect the rights of privacy and of property of subscribers and users at all times. Information on individual subscribers, individual subscriber preferences of any kind, viewing habits, political, social or economic philosophies, beliefs, creeds, religions or names, addresses or telephone numbers shall not be revealed to any person, governmental unit, private agency or company, unless upon the authority of a court of competent jurisdiction, by statute, or upon valid authorization of the subscriber. The authorization shall be contained in a separate document with a prominent statement that the subscriber is authorizing the permission in full knowledge of its provisions. The statement shall be in print size not less than twelve (12) points in height, and must specifically state the right of the subscriber not to grant such permission without penalty. Such authorization shall not in any event be required as a condition of receiving service.
3. The grantee may release the number of its subscribers only as a total number, as a percentage of the potential subscribers throughout its franchise area, or as a number of viewers of individual channels. When indicating the number of subscribers viewing a particular channel at a particular time, a grantee shall indicate only the total number of subscribers viewing during the relevant time and the percentage of all subscribers that they represent, but never the identity of a particular subscriber.
4. A grantee may obtain and/or maintain only such information relating to subscribers as is necessary to conduct legitimate business activity related to cable service, or any other service the grantee shall provide to subscribers.
5. A subscriber may, at any time, revoke any valid authorization previously made, by delivering to the grantee in writing, by mail or otherwise, his or her decision to so revoke. Any such revocation shall be effective upon receipt by grantee.
6. No monitoring of any subscriber terminal shall take place without specific prior written authorization by the user of the terminal in question; provided, however, a grantee may conduct system-wide or individually addressed "sweeps" for the purpose of verifying system integrity, security monitoring, and/or addressable premium service implementation or verification. In no event shall residential aural or visual monitoring of any kind take place without a clear indication to the subscriber that such monitoring is taking place.
7. A grantee may, without prior subscriber approval, monitor those subscriber terminals that are connected to utility monitoring devices that measure utility usage and which have been first approved by the City Council.
8. Prior to the implementation of any interactive subscriber response mechanism, a grantee shall first demonstrate to the satisfaction of the City Manager that such a mechanism can provide effective protection against invasion of privacy.
9. A grantee shall not tabulate any test results, nor permit the use of the cable communications system for such tabulation, in a manner that would reveal the commercial product preferences of opinions of subscribers without valid authorization.
10. Each compilation, publication, tabulation or other dissemination of information made or permitted to be made in violation of this Section with respect to a single occurrence or series of related occurrences may result in the imposition of liquidated damages, pursuant to the franchise agreement.
11. The rights accorded subscribers pursuant to this Section are in addition to any other privacy right accorded subscribers pursuant to federal or state law.
12. The grantee shall not market mailing lists with the names and addresses of subscribers unless the subscribers have been provided the opportunity to prohibit or limit such disclosure. The grantee shall provide a form that permits the subscriber to check a box and mail in the form to delete his or her name from the mailing list. Said form shall be provided to all subscribers upon initiation of service.
13. Notwithstanding anything in this Section to the contrary, nothing herein shall prohibit a grantee from using its cable communications system to collect and disclose such information necessary to render, or conduct a legitimate business activity related to a cable service or other cable service provided by the operator to the subscriber. This right shall not extend to any parent company, owner, partner or affiliate of the grantee.
B. No exclusivity; tenant rights.
1. A grantee may not require a subscriber or a building owner or manager to enter into an exclusive contract as a condition of providing or continuing service.
2. It is the City's intent that tenants not be discriminated against in the ability to subscribe to cable services. Each grantee shall be required to provide service to tenants in individual units of a multiple housing facility with all services offered to other dwelling units within the franchise area, so long as the owner of the facility consents in writing, if requested by the grantee, to provide access to the building, and permit the operator to provide cable services for the reasonable period required to recoup the cost of any wiring required within the building, but outside the demarcation point for each individual apartment as defined by FCC regulations.
C. Discrimination prohibited. A cable communications system operator shall comply with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing equal employment opportunities, and hiring practices, as the same may be amended from time to time.
(Ord. No. 2001-014 § 2; Ord. No. 2006-009 § 22 (part))