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from the are-you-getting-what-you-voted-for-yet? dept.
The Inquirer reports
Donald Trump has signed the bill that will allow ISPs to share or sell customers' browsing history for advertising purposes.
Last week, the Republican House of Representatives passed a resolution which overturns a rule laid down by the FCC during the Obama administration that meant that users had to give their permission before such data was used by third-parties and any breach would be reported as a hack.
President Trump signed the bill on Monday [April 4], which means while many ISPs say they will not sell respect[sic] customers privacy and won't flag their browsing history and other personal data, they can now do so under the new rules. Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast will no longer be obligated to obtain consent before selling and sharing data, and they don't have to notify customers about what kind of data they collect.
[...] There's one winner of this privacy-destroying bill, though, and that's VPN providers.
NordVPN said it has already seen an 86 per cent spike in [inquiries].
Common Cause published, via Common Dreams, a comment from Statement of Michael Copps​, former FCC Commissioner & Common Cause Special Adviser:
Despite a campaign filled with rhetoric about the plight of forgotten Americans, Trump has once again come down on the side of corporate profiteering at the expense of Americans who don't sit on corporate boards and can't afford a $200,000 membership at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. Trump has flip-flipped on his own campaign promises and handed over Americans' right to privacy to those with the deepest pockets.
Previous: Senate Votes Against FCC Internet Privacy Rules
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday April 07 2017, @03:38AM (2 children)
They aren't entirely "private companies" if they are government granted monopolies, right? How else do we justify the extensive regulation and oversight we put them under? What I propose is to reduce the government monopoly grant to the absolute smallest entity in control of only the section of the network where a natural monopoly is unavoidable. The rest of the telcos, once broken up, would then be free of pretty much all regulation outside of normal corporate regulation (reporting, insider trading, privacy laws that apply to any corporation with customer data, etc) and free to compete, merge, etc. as they please.
If it makes you happy it wouldn't even be required to force the breakup. Just announce that owners of wires are now utilities with horribly strict regulation and then add the regs to mandate sale of access on non-discriminatory conditions with those horribly strict regulators setting the conditions. They would get the idea to divest the wires from the service on their own almost instantly as a move to 'increase shareholder value.' Who can complain? That is the game with government granted monopolies, the government calls the tune and you dance to it, unless you can achieve regulatory capture of course, which is why Congress would have to force the rule change; they currently control most State utility boards / commissions and have outsize influence with the FCC.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:50AM
> They aren't entirely "private companies" if they are government granted monopolies, right
They are not government granted monopolies.
The 1992 Cable Act [niu.edu]made it illegal for municipalities to grant exclusive franchises or even to enable de-facto exclusive franchises by unreasonably with-holding franchise agreements from any company that meets the established requirements.
The reason they are heavily regulated is because they are natural monopolies and since most people don't have their heads buried in the sand they are able to recognize that even natural monopolies are a danger.
> Just announce that owners of wires are now utilities with horribly strict regulation
And would that announcement be typed by a dead hand?
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Friday April 07 2017, @09:19AM
We even have a legal reason for implementing your plan as the major telecos under Slick Willie took 200 billion from the American People for a national network upgrade [wordpress.com] and promptly stuck it in their pockets, giving us nothing for all that money but a low res Goatse.
So you plan could be implemented tomorrow, simply declare the telecos that took the money without fulfilling the contract in default and if they do not pay back every cent with 5% interest from the time they cashed the check? We confiscate the last mile to pay back their debt. We can even tell them that if they want a monopoly? For every home that is not currently being served by at least 100mbps down they run FTTH to they will get a 10 year monopoly on that address. this way they can have a monopoly, all they have to do is actually upgrade the infrastructure as they were paid to do in 1996.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.