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Tom Wheeler: Telecom/Cable Industry lobbyist, FCC Commissioner, protector of network privacy.
I always thought he just went with the flow to make sure he was getting a piece of the pie. Now I'm not so sure. In a March 29, 2017 OpEd piece in the New York Times, Wheeler decries the actions of Congress in weakening (some might say destroying) online privacy protections:
On Tuesday afternoon, while most people were focused on the latest news from the House Intelligence Committee, the House quietly voted to undo rules that keep internet service providers — the companies like Comcast, Verizon and Charter that you pay for online access — from selling your personal information.
The Senate already approved the bill, on a party-line vote, last week, which means that in the coming days President Trump will be able to sign legislation that will strike a significant blow against online privacy protection.
[...]
Here’s one perverse result of this action. When you make a voice call on your smartphone, the information is protected: Your phone company can’t sell the fact that you are calling car dealerships to others who want to sell you a car. But if the same device and the same network are used to contact car dealers through the internet, that information — the same information, in fact — can be captured and sold by the network. To add insult to injury, you pay the network a monthly fee for the privilege of having your information sold to the highest bidder.This bill isn’t the only gift to the industry. The Trump F.C.C. recently voted to stay requirements that internet service providers must take “reasonable measures” to protect confidential information they hold on their customers, such as Social Security numbers and credit card information. This is not a hypothetical risk — in 2015 AT&T was fined $25 million for shoddy practices that allowed employees to steal and sell the private information of 280,000 customers.
I would have thought Wheeler wouldn't want to rock the boat, but apparently is willing to stand up for online consumer privacy.
Did I have him wrong? I don't know. And now I'm not really sure I care.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13 2017, @06:13PM
He has been defying expectations for a long time now -- please don't tell me a recent piece by him after he is out of office has only now alerted you to the fact he implemented many things that his replacement is trying very hard to remove in the name of making things simple by removing obstacles to privacy.