re Tell Congress to Protect Our Online Privacy Rights | EFF Action Center

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

Just for info, I am on the Board of the “lobbying group" (which it is not) but in my interest in presenting all sides I 
post this. Dave


Begin forwarded message:

From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Tell Congress to Protect Our Online Privacy Rights | EFF Action Center
Date: February 25, 2017 at 7:18:48 PM EST
To: dave () farber net

Dave, and everyone:

Unfortunately, this lobbying group's "call to action" misrepresents the facts. The fact is that the FCC, by illegally 
reclassifying Internet access as falling under Title II of the Communications Act, stripped the FTC -- the nation's 
privacy watchdog -- of the power to regulate the privacy practices of broadband providers. It then imposed onerous 
restrictions upon ISPs, who do not spy on users, while leaving the REAL spies -- Google/Doubleclick and other edge 
providers -- completely unfettered.

How onerous were these restrictions? The Report and Order (see link below) was 219 pages of dense legalese, and 
announced that additional "guidance" documents would be released later to instruct ISPs as to how the FCC would choose 
to interpret and enforce it. Small providers like myself, concerned that they would be crushed under the burdens of 
compliance, immediately petitioned for an exemption but were rebuffed by the Wheeler FCC, which consistently sought to 
hobble ISPs while tilting the playing field toward edge providers.

The Pai FCC's actions this week are the first step toward undoing the mess which the Wheeler FCC created. (Ultimately, 
the illegal Title II reclassification must be repealed, either by the Commission or by the courts, because Internet 
access is explicitly classified as falling under Title I at 47 USC 230(f).) Once the process is complete, there will be 
uniform privacy protections covering both edge providers AND ISPs.

For more on this, see then-Commissioner Ajit Pai's dissent regarding the so-called "privacy" regulations at P. 209 of 
the voluminous Order, which is available at

https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-148A1.pdf

--Brett Glass

At 04:56 AM 2/25/2017, you wrote:


> https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-to-protect-our-online-privacy-rights
>
> Records of your online activity reveal a tremendous amount about you. While that kind of data is currently protected 
> by federal rules, some members of Congress are trying to repeal those rules so your broadband provider can sell your 
> sensitive Internet activity records to the highest bidder.



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20170226053537:4CF09C0A-FC0F-11E6-ABB9-C29FBCDDB970
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com