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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1

Verizon was one of several giant ISPs that paid lobbied the GOP and Trump administration to gut consumer broadband privacy rules earlier this year. Lawmakers admitted they utilized the public's focus on losing health care to quickly dismantle the rules, which would have required ISPs be more transparent about what personal data is collected and sold, and provide working opt out tools for those interested in privacy. The rules were crafted after Verizon was caught covertly tracking users around the internet and AT&T tried to make privacy a luxury option for an additional fee.

After killing the rules, numerous states came forth with their own privacy proposals, and ISP lobbyists have been busy trying to kill those, as well.

Lobbyists for Google, Verizon, Comcast and AT&T collectively killed one such proposal in California, after falsely telling lawmakers the new law would embolden nazis, increase pop ups, and harm consumers. Now Verizon is taking things one step further, by lobbying the FCC to step in and prevent states from protecting consumer privacy.

In a letter and white paper sent last week to the FCC (pdf), Verizon insists the FCC has ample authority to pre-empt state efforts to protect consumer privacy, and should act to prevent states from doing so.

"Allowing every State and locality to chart its own course for regulating broadband is a recipe for disaster," cries Verizon. "It would impose localized and likely inconsistent burdens on an inherently interstate service, would drive up costs, and would frustrate federal efforts to encourage investment and deployment by restoring the free market that long characterized Internet access service."

Source: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Wants-FCC-to-Ban-States-From-Protecting-Your-Privacy-140625

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