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The FTC did regulate ISPs, until they sued AT&T over their "unlimited" claims and lost in appeal. In losing, they actually lost the ability to regulate ISPs at
by matthew-wegner 10y ago
The FTC did regulate ISPs, until they sued AT&T over their "unlimited" claims and lost in appeal. In losing, they actually lost the ability to regulate ISPs at all. AT&T wanted this. Here's the ruling: https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2016/08/29/15-16585.pdf https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2016/08/29/1...
Seeing this coming, FCC proposed privacy rules around the same time: https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-39A1_Rcd.pdf https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-39A1_Rc...
Which did go into effect on January 3rd: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/02/2016-28006/protecting-the-privacy-of-customers-of-broadband-and-other-telecommunications-services https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/02/2016-28...
Among the privacy requirements, there are also mandatory breach notifications.
The industry's response is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/files/2017/01/As-Filed_NCTA-Recon-Petition-WC-16-1063.pdf https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/files/2017/0... . They complained about the breach requirements, and also claimed the difference between them being opt-in for advertising profiling vs Google et al being opt-out violated their First Amendment rights.
A coalition of Internet advertisers filed a similar response: http://ana.net/getfile/24564 http://ana.net/getfile/24564 . Here, they claim another First Amendment conflict with: "The creation, analysis, and transfer of consumer data for marketing purposes constitutes speech"
So yes, please dig deeper. This is a year-long end to a battle that AT&T successfully opened up in their appeal. It's over; the ISPs won, at the expense of individual American privacy.
- zoul 10y agoSelling your customers’ private browsing data constitutes speech… Wow. Just wow.
- wapz 10y agoYeah that statement makes it sound like everyone is using their browser in a public park on a 60' projector making it available for the ISP to sell.
- andrewla 10y agoThanks for posting this -- very informative! That decision seems insanely broad; there's nothing in there that prevents AT&T from buying a breakfast cereal company and selling corn flakes that claim each 1 pound box contains 80 pounds of cereal and will make you live forever. At the same time, it doesn't seem to apply to ISP broadly; only ISPs that qualify as common carriers. Although the definition of common carrier seems overly broad itself, according to [1], even pointing out that Disney is a common carrier because their roller coasters in their theme parks carry passengers [2]. Has any attempt been made to amend either the FTC acts or the FCC acts to clarify the extent to which entities are classified as common carriers only as regards to those activities which meet the definition? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier [2] Gomez v. Superior Court (Walt Disney Co.) (2005) 35 C4th 1125, http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C4/35C4t1125.htm http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C4/35C4t1125.htm
- andrewla 10y agoAlso, from a closer look at the Federal Register, it does not appear that the regulations went into effect in any meaningful way -- the sections excluded from that effective data are _all_ of the relevant regulations. See my comment below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13986192 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13986192