ISPs Cheer As Congress Sells You Out on Broadband Privacy Knowing full well that the move was extremely unpopular with consumers, most broadband providers remained quiet this week as Congress took their campaign contributions, then effectively sold your privacy down river. Of course there's no need to comment when you pay others to take unpopular positions (and the resulting consumer ire) for you. Numerous ISP-funded policy and lobbying groups were quick to applaud Congress' action, using the same inaccurate statements they'd been making in the run up to the rules' repeal.

"Today’s Congressional action to repeal the FCC’s misguided rules marks an important step toward restoring consumer privacy protections that apply consistently to all internet companies," the NCTA, the cable industry's top lobbying organization said in a statement. "With a proven record of safeguarding consumer privacy, internet providers will continue to work on innovative new products that follow ‘privacy-by-design’ principles and honor the FTC’s successful consumer protection framework. We look forward to working with policymakers to restore consistency and balance to online privacy protections." Except if you've been playing along at home, you should know by now that's not true. ISPs have long argued that the repeal of the FCC's rules was no big deal because the FTC is (in this theoretical equation) supposed to jump in and protect consumers. Former FCC boss Tom Wheeler went so far as to call this claim "a fraud." The FTC has no rule making authority, and is already over-extended with other enforcement obligations, meaning privacy issues are likely to fall through the enforcement cracks (precisely why the ISPs support this approach). As AT&T lawyers argued when trying to dodge accountability for lying about throttling, there's also a common carrier exemption ISPs can use to dodge FTC oversight of their behavior. Make no mistake, there are no FTC broadband privacy rules, and the FTC is not coming to save you or your privacy. Especially not if, like most regulators right now, they're in the process of slowly but surely being gutted under the pretense of "efficiency." Other large ISP lobbying organizations like US Telecom (a coalition of phone companies) and the ACA (a coalition of cable companies) offered similar false assurances that consumers have nothing to worry about. “Today’s action is another step to remove unnecessary rules and regulations that handicap economic growth and innovation, and moves the country one step closer to ensuring that consumers’ private information is protected uniformly across the entire internet ecosystem," said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. "Consumers can rest easy today knowing their privacy is protected under existing FCC authority, which requires companies to keep consumers’ data safe." Yes, rest easy. Ignore however the fact that the companies that support USTelecom are pushing to have all regulatory authority over broadband providers gutted entirely, including rolling back net neutrality rules. There has also been rumblings they're pushing for new laws that would hamstring the FTC. The goal is, to be clear, little to no oversight of one of the least competitive sectors in American industry. "ACA strongly supported Congress' intervention to reverse the harms associated with the FCC's unwarranted and burdensome broadband privacy regulations that singled out ISPs while exempting giant internet edge providers, who have as much, if not more, access to similar consumer data," said American Cable Association President Matt Polka. "ACA members remain committed to maintaining their commendable record of protecting subscriber privacy." Except there was nothing "burdensome" about the rules. They simply required that ISPs are transparent about what's being collected and sold, and mandated they provide working opt out tools. They also (would have) required that you opt in if an ISP is to collect and sell your more personal medical, financial, or browsing data. But yes, nothing quite says "commitment" like lobbying to kill all consumer protections. If you actually believe that any of these mono/duopolies seriously care about your privacy -- or actually want regulators with the power to hold them accountable for bad behavior -- you should steer clear of bridge or swampland salesmen for the foreseeable future. If you actually believe that any of these mono/duopolies seriously care about your privacy -- or actually want regulators with the power to hold them accountable for bad behavior -- you should steer clear of bridge or swampland salesmen for the foreseeable future.







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Most recommended from 37 comments



maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 34 recommendations maartena Premium Member I wonder.... How fast AT&T will re-implement their data snooping that they removed last year, and will once again charge us a premium to have it removed.



This is BS.



Corporations: 1.

Republicans: 1.

People: 0.

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Final score against privacy: 2-0.

ansar

Search for HighSpeed

join:2004-12-10

Utica, MS 23 recommendations ansar Member If only we had more competition... I would be ok with this if I had 10 different Internet providers to choose from. I would include privacy in what I look for when choosing an ISP. Problem is most folks only have 1 Internet provider.

neill6705

join:2014-08-09 5 recommendations neill6705 Member Can I buy the browsing history of the members who voted for this? I'm guessing many of them wouldn't be getting reelected in 2018 after I published it the day before election day. I wouldn't be surprised if I could put a couple in prison.

juilinsandar

Texas Gooner

Premium Member

join:2000-07-17

San Benito, TX ·Time Warner Cable

2 recommendations juilinsandar Premium Member The thing is When karl posts these privacy articles on this tech forum, he's preaching to the choir as most members of this board know/care about this subject. Most regular people don't really care about net privacy, or even understand what it entails. They only care that their social media, streaming, and internet browsing is working.