PK Hasn't Taken a Position on Browser Act, a Bill Raising Concern From TPI's Lenard
Public Knowledge is "evaluating" the Browser Act privacy bill from House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., as Technology Policy Institute Senior Fellow Thomas Lenard called it a "counterproductive" plan. PK is pleased legislators moved "to respond to the concerns…
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consumers expressed after Congress repealed the FCC's broadband privacy rules," said Vice President Chris Lewis. The group hasn't taken a position, he said Thursday, a day after The Boston Globe said PK "has praised the Blackburn bill." The author of that newspaper report, Hiawatha Bray, told us in a phone interview Thursday evening that what the group told him "certainly implies they are happy with what they saw. I never wrote they endorsed the bill." He stood by his initial report. Lenard, meanwhile, said "privacy activists appear to have some new friends among congressional Republicans." The legislation "would return privacy jurisdiction over ISPs to the FTC, but would do so under a new and restrictive regime" with consumer “opt-in” approval for data collected and used for most commercial purposes, Lenard wrote for Morning Consult. "The better route to reinstating FTC jurisdiction is to follow repeal of the FCC privacy rule with repeal of the Title II [Communications Act] classification. The FCC now has a rulemaking underway intended to accomplish that objective, a much better course than new privacy legislation."