Broadband Providers Will Need Permission to Collect Private Data

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Hendricks Dewayne <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 27, 2016 at 3:40:36 PM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Broadband Providers Will Need Permission to Collect Private Data
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Broadband Providers Will Need Permission to Collect Private Data
> By CECILIA KANG
> Oct 27 2016
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/technology/fcc-tightens-privacy-rules-for-broadband-providers.html>
>
> WASHINGTON — Federal officials approved broad new privacy rules on Thursday that prevent companies like AT&T and 
> Comcast from collecting and giving out digital information about individuals — such as the websites they visited and 
> the apps they used — in a move that creates landmark protections for internet users.
>
> By a 3-to-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission clearly took the side of consumers. The new rules require 
> broadband providers to obtain permission from subscribers to gather and give out data on their web browsing, app use, 
> location and financial information. Currently, broadband providers can track users unless those individuals tell them 
> to stop.
>
> It was the first time the F.C.C. has passed such online protections. The agency made privacy rules for phones and 
> cable television in the past, but high-speed internet providers, including AT&T and Verizon Communications, were not 
> held to any privacy restrictions, even though those behemoth companies have arguably one of the most expansive views 
> of the habits of web users.
>
> The passage of the rules deal a blow to telecommunications and cable companies like AT&T and Comcast, which rely on 
> such user data to serve sophisticated targeted advertising. The fallout may affect AT&T’s $85.4 billion bid for Time 
> Warner, which was announced last week, because one of the stated ambitions of the blockbuster deal was to combine 
> resources to move more forcefully into targeted advertising.
>
> “There is a basic truth: It is the consumer’s information,” Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the F.C.C., said of the 
> necessity of protecting internet users who want more control over how companies treat their private information. “It 
> is not the information of the network the consumer hires to deliver that information.”
>
> Privacy groups applauded the new rules, which they said brought the United States more in line with European nations 
> that have moved aggressively to protect their citizens’ online privacy.
>
> “For the first time, the public will be guaranteed that when they use broadband to connect to the internet, whether 
> on a mobile device or personal computer, they will have the ability to decide whether and how much of their 
> information can be gathered,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
>
> The outcry from industries that depend on online user data was also swift. Cable lobbying groups called the rules a 
> result of “regulatory opportunism,” while the Association of National Advertisers labeled the regulations 
> “unprecedented, misguided, counterproductive, and potentially extremely harmful.”
>
> Even with the new rules, online privacy remains tricky. Many people have been lackadaisical about what information 
> they give up online when they register for websites or digital services. The convenience of free services like maps 
> also appeals to people, even though they give companies access to personal information. And some people unknowingly 
> forgo their privacy when allowing apps or other services to track their location or follow their browsing across 
> websites.
>
> The F.C.C. rules also have their limits. Online ad juggernauts including Google, Facebook and other web companies are 
> not subject to the new regulations. Those companies are instead required to follow general consumer protection rules 
> enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. That means Google does not have to explicitly ask people permission first 
> to gather web browsing habits, for example.
>
> AT&T, Verizon and Comcast will also still be able to gather consumers’ digital data, though not as easily as before. 
> The F.C.C. rules apply only to their broadband businesses, which would mean data from the habits of AT&T’s wireless 
> and home broadband customers would be subject to the regulations, but not data about AT&T’s DirecTV users or users of 
> the HBO Now app, for example.
>
> The companies also have other ways to collect information about people, including the purchase of data from brokers.
>
> AT&T, which has criticized the privacy regulations for internet service providers, would not comment on how the rules 
> would affect its proposed purchase of Time Warner. But it emphasized the benefits of ads that allow for free and 
> cheaper web services.
>
> “At the end of the day, consumers desire services which shift costs away from them and toward advertisers,” said 
> Robert W. Quinn Jr., AT&T’s senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs. “We will look at the 
> specifics of today’s action, but it would appear on its face to inhibit that shift of lower costs for consumers by 
> imposing a different set of rules on” internet service providers.
>
> Comcast said that the rules were not needed and that the F.C.C. did not prove that broadband providers were hurting 
> consumers.
>
> For over two decades, internet service providers “and all other internet companies have operated under the F.T.C.’s 
> privacy regime and, during that time, the internet thrived, consumer privacy was protected,” said David L. Cohen, 
> Comcast’s senior executive vice president.
>
> [snip]
>
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