OU HAVE BEEN MISLED! HOODWINKED! DECEIVED!
IS THE MEDIA HYSTERIA WARRANTED?
MUCH ADO OVER INEFFECTUAL
INTERNET PRIVACY RULES?
INTERNET PRIVACY EXPERT: Katie McAuliffe, is the Federal Affairs Manager at Americans for Tax Reform, & Executive Director of Digital Liberty for the last 4 years.
FALSE, FAKE, FAILED
PRIVACY RULES MUST GO…
“House Republicans just voted to let your Internet provider sell your browsing history without your permission,” Business Insider declared. “Congress intends to sell off your Internet privacy,” bellowed Esquire magazine. “This politician gave away your data,” the Daily Beast bellowed. “Now buy hers.”
All of this is, of course, highly misleading. In the real world, Internet Service Providers were allowed to sell your use information yesterday, last month, last year, and in fact at any point since the sound of a 56k modem was something Americans heard every single day. The rule in question wasn’t even going to go into effect until this December.
The sale of user data is as old as the use of the Internet for business and advertising. In the not-so-distant past, at least one provider (Earthlink) actually advertised itself as an ISP that did not sell consumer information, as a selling point.
In short, privacy has not gotten worse as a result of this regulatory repeal — it has merely not improved in a way some had hoped it would.
The problem with the rule that was just repealed — and the reason current Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai penned a passionate dissent against it — is that it really would not have improved online privacy. It merely pretended to do so, instead boosting the ability of one set of Internet companies to use customers’ data at the expense of another set of companies.
Consider, for example, that most Americans use multiple ISPs in the course of a day — home, office and mobile. But as the Electronic Privacy Information Center observed in its comments on the FCC privacy rule, they only use one Google, one Gmail, one YouTube, one Apple (for apps like iMessage, which tracks the phone numbers you contact) and one Facebook. All of these latter — known in the regulatory lingo as “edge providers” — can track, use, and sell the data on your Internet use. They would have continued to be able to do so under the rule that Congress just repealed.”
READ MORE: washingtonexaminer.com/much-ado-over-ineffectual-internet-privacy-rules/article/2619037
READ MORE: digitalliberty.net/node/388
BIO: McAuliffe is Federal Affairs Manager at Americans for Tax Reform, & Executive Director of Digital Liberty for the last 4 years. Her research and advocacy efforts focus on a broad range of telecom and technology issues. Her commentary has appeared in various news outlets including The Hill, Forbes, Daily Caller, One America News Network, and Huffington Post. She was featured as one of Politico’s Rising Stars and frequently speaks at conferences around the country. Before joining Americans for Tax Reform she worked for Congressman Cliff Stearns and has her Masters from University of Florida with a Telecom Policy focus and BA from Virginia Tech.
ABOUT: Digital Liberty is a project of Americans for Tax Reform that advocates for free market technology, telecommunications, and media policy. Digital Liberty believes that free markets and consumer choice – not state and federal bureaucrats – should determine the American technology and media landscape.
Rapid innovation in the technology and Internet ecosphere has given rise to a vast array of new choices for consumers, but with that comes greater calls for government regulation. Consumer choice and competition in a free marketplace will ultimately guide business decisions better than legislation or regulation; consumers – not government – are the best regulators of business.
Digital Liberty advocates for a consumer-driven market free from heavy regulation or taxation of the Internet, technology, telecommunications, video games, and media. We fight to prevent new onerous regulations that will stifle innovation and to eliminate antiquated regulations that hold back the development and adoption of new technology.
WEBSITE: atr.org, digitalliberty.net
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/americansfortaxreform, facebook.com/DigitalLiberty
TWITTER: @taxreformer, @digitalliberty
The LOWE-Down!
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