[Air-L] President Trump just signed off on killing your Internet privacy protections

[Dan L. Burk]

So, this is definitely a bad development.  But it is also a development
that needs to be kept in perspective. 

* The U.S. has now blocked Obama-era FCC privacy rules that would have
prevented ISPs from collecting and using (including selling) certain
types of consumer Internet usage data. 

* However, the FCC rules never actually went into effect.  So in that
sense, nothing has changed. 

* Many ISPs have their own privacy policies stating that they won't
collect and use this information anyway.  If they were to violate those
stated policies, they could be subject to FTC action. 

* However, there is no longer any FCC regulation preventing ISPs from
rescinding their own privacy policies -- only the threat of consumer
disapproval if they did so. 

* It is also possible that other existing legislation, specifically the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act, may prevent ISPs from collecting
and using the information, or from certain types of troubling collection
and use.  Privacy experts are trying to sort this out, and the answer is
unclear.  A lot depends on whether consumers have given explicit or
tacit "consent."   

* So, at a minimum, the legality of collecting and using the information
in the manner that is no longer blocked by the FCC is disputed. 

* What is actually most troubling about the matter is that the U.S.
Congress has the propensity to pass this kind of legislation. 

So, again, a bad development.  But also in many ways no change in the
status quo. 

DLB 

On 2017-04-04 06:30, Ansgar Koene wrote:

> Hi Paulo,
> 
> this is in relation to the repeal of the privacy rules passed by the FCC last year which limited the trade in customer internet usage data by ISPs. The Internet Society blog has some background info.
> 
> https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/north-america-bureau/2017/03/privacy-key-reinforcing-user-trust-internet
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Ansgar
> 
> Dr. Ansgar Koene
> Senior Research Fellow: Horizon Policy Impact, CaSMa & UnBias
> Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute
> University of Nottingham
> http://casma.wp.horizon.ac.uk/
> http://unbias.wp.horizon.ac.uk/
> http://www.horizon.ac.uk/
> https://sites.google.com/site/arkoene/
> ________________________________
> From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Paulo Ferreira <paulo.ferreira at ulusofona.pt>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 4, 2017 12:53:33 PM
> To: Air-L at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] President Trump just signed off on killing your Internet privacy protections
> 
> Hello to all
> 
> Does anyone have more details about this?
> 
> http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/03/technology/internet-privacy-law-trump/index.html
> 
> Regards
> Paulo Ferreira
> 
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