Trump signs repeal of
U.S. broadband privacy rules
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[April 04, 2017]
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed a repeal of
Obama-era broadband privacy rules, the White House said, a victory for
internet service providers and a blow to privacy advocates.
Republicans in Congress last week narrowly passed the repeal of the
privacy rules with no Democratic support and over the strong objections
of privacy advocates.
The signing, disclosed in White House statement late on Monday, follows
strong criticism of the bill, which is a win for AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp
and Verizon Communications Inc.
The bill repeals regulations adopted in October by the Federal
Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring
internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than
websites like Alphabet Inc's Google or Facebook Inc.
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The rules had not yet taken effect but would have required internet
providers to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation,
financial information, health information, children's information and
web browsing history for advertising and marketing.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised the repeal in a statement late on Monday
for having “appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for
regulating the internet." Those flawed privacy rules, which never went
into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies,
not online consumers."
Pai said the FCC would work with the Federal Trade Commission, which
oversees websites, to restore the "FTC’s authority to police internet
service providers’ privacy practices."
Republican FCC commissioners have said the Obama rules would unfairly
give websites the ability to harvest more data than internet service
providers.
The action is the latest in a string of reversals of Obama
administration rules. On Monday, the FCC reversed a requirement that
Charter Communications Inc extend broadband service to 1 million homes
that already have a high-speed provider.
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President Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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On Friday, Comcast, Verizon AT&T Inc said they would voluntarily not
sell customers’ individual internet browsing information.
Verizon does not sell personal web browsing histories and has no plans to do so
but the company said it has two advertising programs that use "de-identified"
customer browsing data, including one that uses "aggregate insights that might
be useful for advertisers and other businesses."
The American Civil Liberties Union said last month Congress should have opposed
"industry pressure to put profits over privacy" and added "most Americans
believe that their sensitive internet information should be closely guarded."
Trade group USTelecom Chief Executive Jonathan Spalter in a statement praised
Trump for "stopping rules that would have created a confusing and conflicting
consumer privacy framework."
Last week, 46 Senate Democrats urged Trump not to sign the bill, arguing most
Americans "believe that their private information should be just that."
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Republicans later this year are expected to move to overturn net neutrality
provisions that in 2015 reclassified broadband providers and treated them like a
public utility - a move that is expected to spark an even bigger fight.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Trott)
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