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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday March 21 2017, @12:04PM   Printer-friendly
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


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 21 2017, @09:25PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @09:25PM (#482408)

    Yup, you framed it incorrectly.
    I'll go for the real-life analogy: The current data markets are people who saw you waling around a store, and may have recorded what you put in your bag, or which shelves you stopped in front of. Some people check that you went to see the doctor. Others will sit at the street corner and log your trips there.
    It's fragments, which you can keep disconnected with careful browsing.

    Meanwhile, your ISP is more like your watch or your car is recording every single place you, your spouse, your kids ever go to, everyone anyone ever talks to and what they talk about, anything they look at (legal, commercial, embarrasing, or not) and anything they ever buy. When, where, how ...

    If the current markets are like selling CCTV tapes and GPS logs, the ISP (or cell company) version is the camera/microphone-equipped tracking collar version. That is way more coherent and comprehensive personal information than anyone wants to see traded around.
    People will get hurt.

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