UPDATE:
The House pased it today. On it's way to the president's desk.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/28/trump-bill-roll-back-internet-privacy-protections/?utm_source=RSS_Feedutm_medium=RSS
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/senate-votes-to-let-isps-sell-your-web-browsing-history-to-advertisers/
Since I'm generating the content they're selling shouldn't I get a cut of the sales or free internet access instead of paying to generate data for them to sell?
The House pased it today. On it's way to the president's desk.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/28/trump-bill-roll-back-internet-privacy-protections/?utm_source=RSS_Feedutm_medium=RSS
ORIGINAL:Trump to sign bill rolling back internet privacy protections
The White House signaled Tuesday that President Trump will sign a controversial bill rolling back Obama-era internet privacy rules, drawing the ire of online advocates who said he is failing his first major drain-the-swamp test by allowing broadband companies to sell users’ personal browsing histories.
The Senate passed the bill last week, and it cleared the House Tuesday on a 215-205 vote, meaning it now goes straight to Mr. Trump.
The bill would revoke an October ruling issued by the Federal Communications Commission that imposed tight restrictions on how broadband companies — also known as internet service providers, or ISPs — are able to handle their users’ information. Under the FCC’s rule, companies had to get their customers to opt in before their data could be sold.
If Mr. Trump follows through on signing the bill, consumers would still be allowed to opt out, but they would have to do so explicitly, and advocates said companies could impose a surcharge on people who wanted their data kept secret.
“This is staggering. This is almost a surrender,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. “If the Republicans are allowed to do this, we have surrendered all thoughts of privacy for the American people.”
All 215 “yes” votes Tuesday came from Republicans, while all Democrats present voted against the bill in the House, as did 15 Republicans.
Beneath the very public fight over privacy is a battle for supremacy between broadband providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T on the one hand, and the big popular websites such as Google and Facebook, known in the industry as “edge providers.”
All of them want access to Americans’ data, which is highly valued by advertisers.
Under the FCC’s rules, the websites would still be able to collect and sell the information users sent them. But the broadband providers would have faced restrictions.
Republicans said repealing the FCC rule was a matter of fairness, saying the government shouldn’t be picking economic winners and losers in the technology market, and consumers can negotiate with their ISPs.
“With all due respect, the internet was not broken and did not need the federal government to come in and try to protect it,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican.
Democrats, however, said repealing the FCC rules means a race to the bottom, freeing all technology companies to collect and sell whatever information they can glean.
They predicted payback from angry internet users.
“My phones are ringing off the hook,” said Rep. Jerry McNerney, California Democrat. “Why are you pushing this? Americans don’t want it, and your voters are just beginning to pay attention.”
Reddit, one of the largest active internet communities, rallied against the GOP’s moves, and users pleaded with Mr. Trump to step in and veto the bill.
“Alright President Trump, you can go ahead and ‘drain the swamp’ now,” said one user who went by the name undergroundsounds.
Some Reddit users said if the privacy protections are revoked, they would pool their money to try to buy the browsing histories of key Republican lawmakers.
Internet privacy advocates said Republicans’ push even violated their own policies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Sen. Jeff Flake, the chief sponsor of the bill, has privacy protections on his own congressional website.
“If you’re a U.S. lawmaker, protecting privacy doesn’t just mean avoiding collecting their data when they visit your website. It means standing up for users’ rights every day on Capitol Hill — the exact opposite of which is to roll back the strong privacy protections already on the books,” the EFF said in a blog post this week.
The issue of ISP privacy arose in the latter years of the Obama administration, when the FCC claimed the power to control broadband companies as a common carrier. Republicans said the FCC was stealing power from the FTC, which the GOP said was the correct place to patrol online privacy.
After claiming powers under the common carrier statute, the FCC then issued the privacy rules in October 2016.
Because that rule came late in the tenure of a lame-duck president, it gave Republicans the chance to use the Congressional Review Act.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/senate-votes-to-let-isps-sell-your-web-browsing-history-to-advertisers/
Glad to see Flake and Pai protecting consumers and helping them avoid confusion by making sure their private data is now monetized by ISPs.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, with lawmakers voting entirely along party lines.
“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."
Home Internet providers can also "build a profile about your listening and viewing habits," while mobile broadband providers "know how you move about your day through information about your geolocation and Internet activity through your mobile device," he said.
"This is a gold mine of data—the holy grail so to speak," Nelson said. "It is no wonder that broadband providers want to be able to sell this information to the highest bidder without consumers’ knowledge or consent. And they want to collect and use this information without providing transparency or being held accountable."
Few consumers have any choice of Internet provider, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Thus, their only choice may be between "giving up their browsing history for an Internet provider to sell to the highest bidder or having no Internet at all," he said.
Wyden also said that the FCC rules don't prevent ISPs from monetizing customer data—the rules simply require ISPs to inform consumers about how their data is used and get customer consent before selling the most sensitive data, he said.
Advocacy groups including Free Press, Demand Progress, and the ACLU went to Congress to deliver nearly 90,000 petitions to "save broadband privacy" yesterday.
ISPs and advertising lobby groups had urged senators to kill the privacy rules. Cable lobby group NCTA—The Internet & Television Association said, "we appreciate today’s Senate action to repeal unwarranted FCC rules that deny consumers consistent privacy protection online and violate competitive neutrality." The group said that the cable industry "remains committed to offering services that protect the privacy and security of the personal information of our customers."
What the privacy rules require
The FCC's privacy rules would require ISPs to get opt-in consent from consumers before selling or sharing personal information including geo-location data, financial and health information, children’s information, Social Security numbers, Web browsing history, app usage history, and the content of communications. Opt-out requirements would have applied to less sensitive data such as e-mail addresses and service tier information.
The opt-in and opt-out provisions would have taken effect as early as December 4, 2017. The rules would also force ISPs to clearly notify customers about the types of information they collect, specify how they use and share the information, and identify the types of entities they share the information with.
The FCC's privacy rules also had a data security component that would have required ISPs to take "reasonable" steps to protect customers' information from theft and data breaches. This was supposed to take effect on March 2, but the FCC's Republican majority halted the rule's implementation. Another set of requirements related to data breach notifications is scheduled to take effect on June 2.
The Senate vote would prevent all of these rules from taking effect, unless the House or President Trump decide otherwise.
Republicans say that the Federal Trade Commission should have authority over ISPs' privacy practices, instead of the FCC. That would require further action by the FCC or Congress because ISPs and phone companies are common carriers that cannot be regulated by the FTC.
Since I'm generating the content they're selling shouldn't I get a cut of the sales or free internet access instead of paying to generate data for them to sell?