Senate votes to let ISPs sell your Web browsing history to advertisers

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:22 PM
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Senate votes to let ISPs sell your Web browsing
history to advertisers
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>


Senate votes to let ISPs sell your Web browsing history to advertisers
ISP now stands for "invading subscriber privacy," Democratic senator says.
By JON BRODKIN
Mar 23 2017
<
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/senate-votes-to-let-isps-sell-your-web-browsing-history-to-advertisers/
>

The US Senate today voted to eliminate broadband privacy rules that would
have required ISPs to get consumers' explicit consent before selling or
sharing Web browsing data and other private information with advertisers
and other companies.

The rules were approved in October 2016 by the Federal Communications
Commission's then-Democratic leadership, but are opposed by the FCC's new
Republican majority and Republicans in Congress. The Senate today used its
power under the Congressional Review Act to ensure that the FCC rulemaking
"shall have no force or effect" and to prevent the FCC from issuing similar
regulations in the future.

The House, also controlled by Republicans, would need to vote on the
measure before the privacy rules are officially eliminated. President Trump
could also preserve the privacy rules by issuing a veto. If the House and
Trump agree with the Senate's action, ISPs won't have to seek customer
approval before sharing their browsing histories and other private
information with advertisers.

The Senate vote was 50-48.

“President Trump may be outraged by fake violations of his own privacy, but
every American should be alarmed by the very real violation of privacy that
will result [from] the Republican roll-back of broadband privacy
protections," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said after the vote.

The Senate measure was introduced two weeks ago by Sen. Jeff Flake
(R-Ariz.) and 23 Republican co-sponsors. Flake said at the time that he is
trying to "protect consumers from overreaching Internet regulation." FCC
Chairman Ajit Pai argues that consumers would be confused if there are
different privacy rules for ISPs than for online companies like Google and
Facebook. "American consumers should not have to be lawyers or engineers to
figure out if their information is protected," Pai recently told Democratic
lawmakers.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) argued today that the privacy rules "hurt job
creators and stifle economic growth." Cornyn also said the FCC's privacy
rulemaking involves the "government picking winners and losers," and was
among the "harmful rules and regulations put forward by the Obama
administration at the last moment."

ISPs: “Information sold for profit”

Democrats and consumer advocates are furious. The acronym "ISP" now stands
for "information sold for profit," and "invading subscriber privacy,"
rather than "Internet service providers," Markey said during floor debate
today.

The Senate action "would allow Comcast, Verizon, Charter, AT&T, and other
broadband providers to take control away from consumers and relentlessly
collect and sell their sensitive information without the consent of that
family," Markey said. That sensitive information includes health and
financial information, and information about children, he said. ISPs want
to "draw a map" of where families shop and go to school, and sell it to
data brokers "or anyone else who wants to make a profit off you," Markey
said.

"Your home broadband provider can know when you wake up each day—either by
knowing the time each morning that you log on to the Internet to check the
weather/news of the morning, or through a connected device in your home,"
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said during Senate floor debate yesterday. "And
that provider may know immediately if you are not feeling well—assuming you
decide to peruse the Internet like most of us to get a quick check on your
symptoms. In fact, your broadband provider may know more about your
health—and your reaction to illness—than you are willing to share with your
doctor.”

[snip]

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