ISPs Move to Set Record Straight on Privacy as CRA Resolution Moves Toward Law
ISP heavyweights sought to reassure the public they would guarantee consumer privacy regardless of whether the FCC has privacy rules for ISPs. The pledges came Friday, before a likely presidential signature on a Congressional Review Act measure to kill FCC rules (see 1703300057). Democrats in the Senate and House opposed the resolution in recent votes and asked President Donald Trump to veto the override.
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“There has been a lot of misleading talk about how the congressional action this week to overturn the regulatory overreach of the prior FCC will now permit us to sell sensitive customer data without customers’ knowledge or consent,” said Comcast Chief Privacy Officer Gerard Lewis in a blog post. “This is just not true. In fact, we have committed not to share our customers’ sensitive information (such as banking, children’s, and health information), unless we first obtain their affirmative, opt-in consent.” Comcast “will revise our privacy policy to make more clear and prominent that, contrary to the many inaccurate statements and reports, we do not sell our customers’ individual web browsing information to third parties and that we do not share sensitive information unless our customers have affirmatively opted in to allow that to occur,” Lewis said.
“All of the rhetoric that asserts -- without any factual support -- that the CRA vote suddenly eliminated consumer privacy protections is just plain wrong,” said AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Bob Quinn in a blog post. “FCC’s new broadband privacy rules had not yet even taken effect. And no one is saying there shouldn’t be any rules. Supporters of this action all agree that the rescinded FCC rules should be replaced by a return to the long-standing" FTC approach, he said. "In today’s overheated political dialogue, it is not surprising that some folks are ignoring the facts.”
Verizon has “two programs that use web browsing data -- and neither of these programs involves selling customers’ personal web browsing history,” said Chief Privacy Officer Karen Zacharia in a blog post. “Verizon does not sell the personal web browsing history of our customers. ... That’s the bottom line.”
The “vacuum of information” about the CRA votes “sent pockets of the internet into a panic,” wrote USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter in an opinion piece in Axios. “Consumers wake up today to the same online world and digital protections they enjoyed one week ago.” He pointed to disparity in treatment for ISPs and edge providers: ISPs "are relative bit players in the $83 billion digital ad market, which made singling them out for heavier regulations so suspect.”
“Nonsense,” wrote FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny in a joint op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. “If the legislation is signed into law, your broadband provider could collect this information and sell it to advertisers, or any third party, without your knowledge -- and without ever offering you a choice. … It is our hope that President Trump, who was elected by arguing that he would stand up for the average American, does what most Americans would expect and vetoes this legislation.”
“Republicans put corporate profits over personal privacy in move to roll back #BroadbandPrivacy protections,” tweeted Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of leadership. “Urge President Trump to VETO.”
“Once Trump signs the bill, diminishing the FCC’s power to police privacy online, ISPs will feel empowered -- perhaps even encouraged -- by Republicans (no Democrats voted for this measure) to spy on all of us as they never have before,” said Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology Director Paul Ohm in a piece for The Washington Post, arguing the law would benefit the FBI: “What the new law would do is give ISPs the incentive and the congressional and presidential seal of approval to construct the richest database of Web surfing and app-usage behavior the world has ever seen. This will be a honeypot attracting the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies like flies.” Gigi Sohn, who advised former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler when the rules were promulgated, tweeted, “This should scare the living daylights out of every American.”
“If these rules are overturned, we will need to be vigilant in monitoring broadband provider practices to demand transparency, and work closely with the FCC to demand accountability,” Mozilla blogged. “Mozilla -- and many other tech companies -- strive to deliver better online privacy and security through our products as well as our policy and advocacy work, and that job is never done because technology and threats to online privacy and security are always evolving.”
“There is no doubt that many of the lawmakers who voted for the repeal did so because of the campaign contributions by the telecom lobby,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said, urging Trump to veto the CRA reversal.
Daniel Lyons, associate professor at Boston College Law School, lamented the “unusual amount of sturm-und-drang in the blogosphere, much of which is misleading,” in the midst of the CRA disapproval debate and backlash. “Understanding what’s really at stake requires more nuance than one can generally fit into a 140-character call to action,” Lyons blogged for the American Enterprise Institute.