How Congress can fix Internet privacy rule

Those rules were adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) previous year. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and 23 other Republican sponsors, he said he wanted to “protect consumers from overreaching Internet regulations”.

The House’s vote Tuesday approving a resolution that would allow internet service providers to sell data about their customers’ browsing history split almost along party lines. The rules, which would have put tough restrictions on what companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T can do with information such as your internet history, hadn’t yet gone into effect.

The lone Texas Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, said just before the Tuesday evening vote that he planned to oppose the measure. S.J. Res. 34 now goes to President Trump for his signature and, according to whitehouse.gov, Trump’s advisers would recommend he sign the bill into law.

If you like to browse the internet, some consumer groups say get ready for your service provider to spy on you and then sell your data for its own profit.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he did not know when Trump would sign the bill. Most of those same people, though, likely still enjoy their privacy when they are searching or shopping via the internet, or sending along sensitive health information. It is anticipated to be marked by President Donald Trump.

The former chairman of the FCC noted in an op-ed column in The New York Times Wednesday that, for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, federal rules have protected the privacy of information in a telephone call. And consumer advocates worry that the companies will be an enticing target for hackers.

Google and Facebook are allowed to, but the rule would have stopped Internet Service Providers from doing the same thing. If you look at the recent Vizio case, they were able to take very strong action against sharing of your viewing history.

So, the FTC cannot do consumer protection on regulated public utilities. This is an important issue for consumers and for the companies that are trying to use that data for sales and marketing.

And ISPs have access not only to your searches and Facebook likes, but every site you visit, every physical location you go to, and every app you use.

The reclassification of broadband providers as common carrier in the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order, gives the FCC the jurisdiction to regulate broadband providers, taking this power away from the FTC.

The overturned rules were created by the Federal Communications Commission in October, requiring broadband providers to get our permission before collecting private data on our online activities and offering it for sale to advertisers.