The Senate voted 50-48 Thursday to overturn the rules, now the House must vote and, if its members pass the resolution, forward it onto President Trump.
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The measures would remove FCC rules enacted a year ago that required Internet service providers, or ISPs, such as Comcast (CMCSA), Charter (CHTR), AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) to follow new rules to protect consumers’ privacy. The privacy framework in these rules focuses on transparency, choice, and data security, and provides heightened protection for sensitive customer information, consistent with customer expectations.
However, House Democrats accused Republicans of essentially throwing US consumers’ privacy rights under the bus.
Fifteen Republicans joined with 190 Democrats to oppose the measure, which was supported by most members of the House GOP caucus. Wheeler championed the privacy rules.
Republicans argued that the FCC overstepped its bounds and that it was up to the Federal Trade Commission to regulate privacy. “It all flows through their tunnel and this rule would have at least made it so that they have to tell you they’re doing that and get your consent to do it”. Those rules would have prevented ISPs from collecting and selling customer data without explicit customer consent, in much the same way that Facebook and Google do now. “This rule would literally change how broadband providers have access to your entire personal life”, he said. Republicans and industry groups have blasted that discrepancy, saying it was unfair and confusing for consumers. The rules meant to prevent internet service providers from selling consumer data to third parties without their consent.
“These rules do little to enhance privacy but clearly add a new layer of federal red tape on innovators and job creators”, Oregon Congressman Greg Walden says. “But Republicans have picked the week after Russian spies were caught hacking into half a billion American email accounts to overturn the requirement that internet service providers keep their sensitive data secured from cybercriminals”, she said.
“My phones are ringing off the hook”, said Rep. “Americans don’t want it, and your voters are just beginning to pay attention”.
Consumer privacy advocates argue the elimination of the FCC’s broadband rules, which were set to go into effect in December, subject customers to greater risk of identity theft, put internet users at the mercy of ISP business and cybersecurity practices, and overall further erode personal privacy in the digital era.
“Consumers want more privacy protection, not less”, Rep. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Sen. Jeff Flake, the chief sponsor of the bill, has privacy protections on his own congressional website.
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Press Release by U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer. “Trump should use his power to protect everyone’s right to privacy”. The agency oversaw ISPs before the FCC’s net neutrality rules brought ISPs under FCC jurisdiction in 2015.
