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from the I'll-determine-what's-sensitive dept.
ISPs that want the federal government to eliminate broadband privacy rules say that your Web browsing and app usage data should not be classified as "sensitive" information.
"Web browsing and app usage history are not 'sensitive information,'" CTIA said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday. CTIA is the main lobbyist group representing mobile broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint.
The FCC rules passed during the Obama administration require ISPs to get opt-in consent from consumers before sharing sensitive customer information with advertisers and other third parties. The FCC defined Web browsing history and app usage history as sensitive information, along with other categories such as geo-location data, financial and health information, and the content of communications. If the rules are overturned, ISPs would be able to sell this kind of customer information to advertisers.
The opt-in rules are scheduled to take effect on or after December 4, 2017, but ISPs have petitioned the FCC to eliminate the rules before that happens. The latest CTIA filing was a reply to groups that opposed the petition to overturn the rules.
In making its argument that Web browsing and app usage history are not sensitive information, CTIA said that the Federal Trade Commission has taken a different stance than the FCC.
"To justify diverging from the FTC's framework and defining Web browsing history as 'sensitive,' the commission and the [privacy rule supporters] both cherry-picked evidence in an attempt to show that ISPs have unique and comprehensive access to consumers' online information," CTIA wrote. "As the full record shows, however, this is simply not true. Indeed, even a prominent privacy advocacy organization asserted that it is 'obvious that the more substantial threats for consumers are not ISPs,' but rather other large edge providers."
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: 3, Insightful) by shipofgold on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:41PM (2 children)
It's one thing for a credit agency to use freely available information to compile a credit report and sell it
What kind of information in my credit report is freely available????
The only thing that might be public is the amount of my mortgage, but even my payment history should be private.
If anything my banks are selling all my private information to the credit agencies in the same fashion that the ISPs want to sell information to others.
Are my banks spying on me by monitoring my credit card usage?
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday March 21 2017, @07:46PM
If I as an individual compiled as much information on you as a credit reporting agency had I would likely be behind bars for stalking. Those reporting agencies glean as much info as they can from as many public data sets as they can get their hands on. Property tax records, DMV records, court records, shit they buy from other database operators, shit that banks, businesses and other give them, etc. Personally I have wondered if it is possible to get a restraining order against them like one could for a regular stalker and force them to remove any and all records they have on me. I believe we have cyber stalking laws.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday March 21 2017, @08:14PM
I think that you are confusing "free as in beer" with something else.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory