Advertisers Offer Broadband Privacy Alternative

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With the Federal Communications Commission preparing to vote Oct 27 on a proposal that could for the first time sweep web browsing and app use histories into an opt-in regime, disallowing the sharing of that info by Internet service providers unless consumers give affirmative permission, critics are pulling out the stops to stop it. The FCC released its agenda for the Oct. 27 meeting and broadband privacy was still teed up.

Advertising associations, which see the new regime as a definite damper on the online ads that underwrite all that free web content, offered up a proposal which was essentially that the FCC not make web browsing or app history sensitive information subject to opt-in requirements, except when it involves information otherwise classified as sensitive. The proposal would require opt-in for traditional (under the Federal Trade Commission regulatory regime that used to apply to broadband categories) sensitive information, geolocation, children’s information, health information (e.g., pharmaceutical prescriptions or medical), financial information, Social Security numbers, and the content of communications (emails, texts, etc).


Advertisers Offer Broadband Privacy Alternative