US Lower House Passed A Resolution Rolling Back FCC Privacy Rules

The US Senate has voted in favor of eliminating broadband privacy policies that require ISPs to obtain users' consent before sharing or selling consumers' Web browsing data and other private information to advertisers. The rules were first approved the Federal Communications Commission's Democratic leadership in October 2016.

However, the rules are opposed by the FCC's new Republican majority and Republicans in Congress, which has led the Senate to hold, using the power bestowed on it under the Congressional Review Act, that the FCC rulemaking "shall have no force what so ever. The ruling of the senate also prevents the FCC from issuing similar regulations in the future.

Meanwhile, the privacy rules are technically not eliminated until the Lower House, which is also controlled by Republicans votes in favor of its elimination. According to Arstechnica, the United States president could also prevent the outing of the privacy rules by issuing a veto. Unfortunately, ISPs would not need to obtain consumers' approval before sharing their browsing data and other private information with advertisers, if the Lower House and the president votes in favor of the removal.

"President Trump may be outraged by fake violations of his own privacy, but every American should be alarmed by the very real violation of privacy that will result [from] the Republican roll-back of broadband privacy protections," Sen. Ed Markey said after the vote.

Currently, the US Lower House passed a resolution rolling back FCC privacy rules with a slim majority of 215 to 205, according to Engadget. Sen. Jeff Flake who introduced the Senate measure two weeks ago with the aid of 23 other Republican co-sponsors said he is trying to protect consumers from overreaching Internet regulation.

On the contrary, Ajit Pai, FCC Chairman n that noted that internet users would be confused if there are different privacy rules for ISPs than for companies like Google and Facebook. He added that American consumers should not need to be professionals to figure out whether their information is protected.

It is reported that Sen. John Cornyn also argues that the privacy rules hurt job creators and stifle economic growth. However, recent updates reveal that Democrats and consumer advocates are not pleased about the proposed removal of the privacy rules and now use acronyms such as "information sold for profit," and "invading subscriber privacy," instead of "Internet service providers," for "ISPs."

Markey said during floor debate that the action of the Senate would encourage Comcast, Charter, Verizon, AT&T, and other internet service providers to take control of personal data away from consumers. These service providers would also freely collect and sell consumers' important information to advertisers without the consent of such individuals.

Markey went on to say that such sensitive information could include consumers' health and financial information, and important information about children. He added that ISPs want to draw a map of where individuals and their families shop and go to school, and then sell such data to brokers or anybody who wants to make a profit from others.