The FCC passes new privacy rules for broadband providers

[Jos]

Federal regulators have approved new rules that will curb the ability of Internet service providers to collect data about users — including app usage, browsing history, mobile location data and more — for advertising purposes. The decision essentially reverts the current “opt-out” policy to opt-in, where users would need to grant express permission to ISPs.

The rules passed in a 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission this morning. "It's the consumers' information," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "How it is used should be the consumers' choice. Not the choice of some corporate algorithm."

The agency said it created the rules after it reclassified broadband last year into a service like a utility. Chairman Tom Wheeler argued that while it’s true the FTC doesn't have regulatory authority over ISPs, now that they are classified as "common carriers," they should have privacy rules similar to those imposed on phone companies.

ISPs lobbied against these rules claiming they would deny broadband providers the same opportunity Internet companies have to participate in the digital advertising market. But Wheeler sees things differently: “The network sees everything I do. A website sees what I do on that website. If I don't like the privacy practices of a website, I can say I don't want to go to that website. But I don't really have too much choice in my broadband provider.”

The move is a blow to the pending mergers between Verizon and Yahoo as well as AT&T and Time Warner, seeing those deals are in part built around the opportunity to break into the targeted-advertising market to create new revenue streams.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66833-fcc-passed-sweeping-new-rules-protect-online-privacy.html

 

[Lionvibez]

Wheeler is the man great job dude.

 

[Evernessince]

"The rules passed in a 3-2 vote"

This is the sad part, even in the FCC politicians are still voting along parts lines. On top of that, guys on the board to vote like Ajit Pai are paid for by the ISP and Telecom companies, his largest donations coming from the very ones he is supposed to regulate.

Thank god this passed. The fact that ISPs can not only charge you for service but also turn around and sell information shared over that service to advertisers is a very grevious breach of privacy.

ISP should be subject to hefty regulations, as they have shown that they will abuse any loophole they can find. As the internet becomes more and more necessary, America is falling further behind. Regional monopolies keep pricing high and service low, complain about the cost of expanding their network even when they receive public money greater than that years networks costs, and continue to funnel money into the American political Zoo to keep the gravy trail rolling.

 

[Jack007]

This is good but bad in a way cause its a big lie. The isps will spy on its customers anyway. So the best thing to do is use a firewall and a ip anonymizer when surfing that way nothing is tracked

 

[seefizzle]

We need the FCC to pass a law that explicitly makes data caps and traffic prioritization or throttling illegal.

 

[stewi0001]

We need the FCC to pass a law that explicitly makes data caps and traffic prioritization or throttling illegal.

So who is going to pay for the infrastructure so they don't have to do data caps and throttling?

 

[seefizzle]

So who is going to pay for the infrastructure so they don't have to do data caps and throttling?

Um... we do, when we pay our monthly bills. That is their entire business model. We pay them money so they build and maintain the infrastructure to supply people with an internet connection. These companies aren't just scraping by. They're making billions off everyone and just trying to nickel and dime us more and more every year.

 

[p51d007]

You think the ISP's are worried about this stupid rule? NOPE.

 

[Uncle Al]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the ISP's are not the end applications like facebook, google, etc .... no? So for the average person, this ruling means virtually nothing and protects nothing? Another good reason to fire up TOR for all my internet browsing .....

 

[stewi0001]

Um... we do, when we pay our monthly bills. That is their entire business model. We pay them money so they build and maintain the infrastructure to supply people with an internet connection. These companies aren't just scraping by. They're making billions off everyone and just trying to nickel and dime us more and more every year.

But have you thought how dramatically demand has increased. Yes they are making money, but there is a lot of time and resources and legal stuff. Basically, they can't build willy nilly.

If you really want to complain about something, lets talk medical insurance in America and how crappy it is.

 

[Jack007]

We need the FCC to pass a law that explicitly makes data caps and traffic prioritization or throttling illegal.

throttling is hard to implement with users who are very expert hackers that download massive amounts of data on peer to peer networks with optimized nodes setup everywhere that utilize anonymous ip configs. its hard to stop for the majority of isps out there. its like a tsunami happening every minute or so. can u imagine the mountaneous surge of data then seconds later a calm as if though nothing happened

 

[cliffordcooley]

throttling is hard to implement with users who are very expert hackers that download massive amounts of data on peer to peer networks with optimized nodes setup everywhere that utilize anonymous ip configs.

Even if an ISP has trouble implementing a measure of throttling (which I personally don't believe), you can bet your bottom dollar they know who is causing problems. Any ISP has other options available to them in combating problematic bandwidth hogs.