Trump poised to sign away privacy protections for internet users

President Donald Trump was expected to sign legislation on Wednesday allowing internet service providers to sell the browsing habits of their customers.

The move, which critics charge will “fundamentally undermine” consumer privacy, overturns an Obama-era rule issued last October that was designed to give consumers greater control over how internet service providers (ISPs) could share their information.

Those rules, drawn up by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), were scheduled to take effect by the end of 2017 and would have forced ISPs to get people’s consent before selling their data to advertisers and others.

Fifteen Republicans broke ranks to vote against the controversial measure on Tuesday evening but the House of Representatives voted 215 to 205 to approve a resolution that uses the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to prevent the privacy rules from taking effect.

The CRA allows an incoming president to overturn previous executive branch regulations and has been used by Trump to repeal a number of Obama’s key initiatives.

The repeal reached the president’s desk on Wednesday morning and the White House has signalled Trump’s clear intention to sign it.

Without the FCC broadband protections, ISPs such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T are free to track your browsing behaviour and sell that data on to advertisers without consent. This represents a huge treasure trove of personal data, including your health concerns, shopping habits and visits to porn sites. ISPs can find out where you bank, your political views and sexual orientation simply based on the websites you visit. The fact that you are looking at a website at all can also reveal when you’re at home and when you’re not.

“Give me one good reason why Comcast should know what my mother’s medical problems are,” said congressman Mike Capuano during the hearing before the vote, explaining how he had researched her condition after a trip to the doctor. “Just last week I bought underwear on the internet. Why should you know what size I take? Or the color?”

The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said: “Americans learned last week that agents of Russian intelligence hacked into email accounts to obtain secrets on American companies, government officials and more.

“This resolution would not only end the requirement you take reasonable measures to protect consumers’ sensitive information, but prevents the FCC from enacting a similar requirement and leaves no other agency capable of protecting consumers.”

But Ajit Pai, Trump’s newly appointed head of the FCC, argued that the Obama era rules were an example of regulatory overreach and that another regulator, the Federal Trade Commission, already polices online privacy rules.

“Moving forward, I want the American people to know that the FCC will work with the FTC to ensure that consumers’ online privacy is protected though a consistent and comprehensive framework. In my view, the best way to achieve that result would be to return jurisdiction over broadband providers’ privacy practices to the FTC, with its decades of experience and expertise in this area,” he said.

Those in favor of repealing the privacy rules argued that it levelled the playing field for internet service providers who want to get into the advertising business like Google and Facebook. According to ISPs, scrapping the rules would allow them to show the user more relevant advertising and offers, which would give the companies better return on the investment they have made in infrastructure. They argue that web browsing history and app usage should not count as “sensitive” information.

But privacy advocates and consumer watchdogs immediately joined Democrats in condemning the policy shift.

“Today Congress proved once again that they care more about the wishes of the corporations that fund their campaigns than they do about the safety and security of their constituents,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of digital rights group Fight for the Future.

“Gutting these privacy rules won’t just allow internet service providers to spy on us and sell our personal information, it will also enable more unconstitutional mass government surveillance, and fundamentally undermine our cybersecurity by making our sensitive personal information vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, and foreign governments,” she added.

Carmen Scurato, director of policy and legal affairs at the National Hispanic Media Coalition, called the vote “a disturbing rubber stamp from conservative policymakers aimed at dismantling needed consumer protections for corporate profit.

“With the approval of the president, corporations will now be handed the ability to share the sensitive, personal information of millions of Americans without their consent and hinder the FCC’s role as a consumer watchdog far into the future,” she said.