The Electronic Frontier Foundation claims that the legislature "kowtowed" to lobbyists from telecoms, advertisers and other companies that stand to benefit from ISPs selling your data without explicit consent. They waged a public campaign against the bill claiming that there would be security risks if they couldn't share data on their own terms. Whether that's true or not, it's clear that those companies got what they wanted, and that people across the country will have to live with the looser federal regulation unless California or another state passes a bill restoring tougher safeguards.