[3/23/17] On March 23rd, 2017, the US Senate votes on S.J.Res 34, which would use the Congressional Review Act to strip away online privacy protections gained under the FCC and also disallow the FCC from enacting privacy rules in the future. The resolution, if passed along with its House counterpart and then signed into law, would pass the responsibility of online privacy regulation from the FCC onto the FTC, with the American public losing out in the meantime.
The FCC online privacy rules currently require ISPs to get your affirmative consent before selling your personal, sensitive information to advertisers. Notably, the FCC didn’t go as far as to ban “pay-for-privacy” schemes that were being offered by some ISPs. Back in 2016, when the FCC passed sweeping net neutrality and online privacy rules for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecoms to follow, the FTC did release a statement titled: Net Neutrality and Privacy: Don’t Fear the Reclassification.
The Senators that proposed this resolution did so for a reason
If you’re wondering whether or not the Senators that proposed S.J.Res 34 received any money from ISPs or telecoms, the answer is a resounding yes. Vocativ has a nice infographic that shows which Senators have received donations from telecoms and ISPs, and even trade groups like the CTIA. In a recent filing with the FCC, the CTIA has been attempting to push the idea that web browsing history and app usage data are not sensitive information.
