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This controversy seems overblown to me. It would have been nice if these rules had gone into effect as scheduled, but let's remember that they never actually d

This controversy seems overblown to me. It would have been nice if these rules had gone into effect as scheduled, but let's remember that they never actually did. So nothing has been lost - ISP's have gained no new abilities, despite how the extremely biased media coverage I have seen of this paints the situation. They have been able to sell aggregated targeting data forever, and will be able to continue doing so. This article is actually somewhat encouraging, in that it displays the limits of the laws as they exist today and will apparently remain. You cannot go buy the browsing histories of specific individuals - enemies, employees, etc. Many of the ridiculous "sky is falling" leaps of fact and logic that have been portrayed in the media to get views (ironically so that they can make money from displaying targeted advertising on articles decrying it) have been disproved by this article.

tzs 10y ago
You make it sound like the FCC privacy rules were bringing something totally new to the table. That's not really correct. They were more bringing back something that had recently been lost. Until mid 2016 ISP privacy abuses could be dealt with through the FTC, basically the same as privacy abuses at most other internet businesses are dealt with. In mid 2016 a court ruled that the FTC did not have authority to deal with these issues for common carriers, which ISPs had been since being reclassified as part of the 2015 net neutrality rules. The result was a significant loosening of privacy regulation for ISPs. The FCC rules would have undid that loosening.
- orthecreedence 10y ago
  Thanks for explaining this. I didn't know the full chain of events nor the FTC's involvement and how it affected the 2016 FCC rules. This makes it much more clear.
bigbugbag 10y ago
> You cannot go buy the browsing histories of specific individuals - enemies, employees, etc. You could buy pretty detailed documentation, including internet usage history, from IRC bots on the shadier shades of the doxxing market 15 years ago. Not everybody's would be readily available or as detailed but if you could afford it you go for on-demand doxxing, the more detailed and the more high profile target the more expensive. Among the data extraction methods used, one was gaining remote access to target's computer, collect the data collected, curate it and sell it. So yes it was possible to buy browsing history of specific individuals 15 years ago, so I would be surprised if it wasn't still possible today. Don't ask me where to look, I haven't gravitated under these shades since 15 years ago.

tzs 10y ago

You make it sound like the FCC privacy rules were bringing something totally new to the table. That's not really correct. They were more bringing back something that had recently been lost. Until mid 2016 ISP privacy abuses could be dealt with through the FTC, basically the same as privacy abuses at most other internet businesses are dealt with. In mid 2016 a court ruled that the FTC did not have authority to deal with these issues for common carriers, which ISPs had been since being reclassified as part of the 2015 net neutrality rules. The result was a significant loosening of privacy regulation for ISPs. The FCC rules would have undid that loosening.

orthecreedence 10y ago
Thanks for explaining this. I didn't know the full chain of events nor the FTC's involvement and how it affected the 2016 FCC rules. This makes it much more clear.

bigbugbag 10y ago

> You cannot go buy the browsing histories of specific individuals - enemies, employees, etc. You could buy pretty detailed documentation, including internet usage history, from IRC bots on the shadier shades of the doxxing market 15 years ago. Not everybody's would be readily available or as detailed but if you could afford it you go for on-demand doxxing, the more detailed and the more high profile target the more expensive. Among the data extraction methods used, one was gaining remote access to target's computer, collect the data collected, curate it and sell it. So yes it was possible to buy browsing history of specific individuals 15 years ago, so I would be surprised if it wasn't still possible today. Don't ask me where to look, I haven't gravitated under these shades since 15 years ago.