EFF Call for sign-ons: ISPs, networking companies and engineers opposed to FCC privacy repeal

Tue Mar 28 19:53:05 UTC 2017

Quoting an Alexa spokesperson:

"We don't think we did anything wrong," Alexa Chief Executive Brewster Kahle said. "But instead of going all the way through the legal process, we thought this was the easiest way to go on with our business."

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That capsulized the problem perfectly: providers don't get that they're doing anything wrong when they sell user's personal usage data. 

-mel via cell

> On Mar 28, 2017, at 12:12 PM, Tim Pozar <pozar at lns.com> wrote:
> 
> Alexa ran into this problem...
> 
> https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-unit-settles-privacy-lawsuit/
> 
> Tim
> 
>> On 3/28/17 11:45 AM, Mel Beckman wrote:
>> No ISPs have any right to market our customers browsing history, and currently that practice is illegal unless the customer opts in. In my opinion, only a fool wants to relieve ISPs of this restriction.
>> 
>> The claim oft presented by people favoring this customer abuse is that the sold data is anonymous. But it's been well-established that very simple data aggregation techniques can develop signatures that reveal the identity of people in anonymized data.
>> 
>> -mel beckman
>> 
>>> On Mar 28, 2017, at 10:40 AM, Rod Beck <rod.beck at unitedcablecompany.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Last time I checked most European countries have stronger privacy protections than the US. Are they also idiots? Mr. Glass, would you care to respond?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Roderick.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: NANOG <nanog-bounces at nanog.org> on behalf of Brett Glass <nanog at brettglass.com>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 1:13 AM
>>> To: nanog at nanog.org
>>> Subject: Re: EFF Call for sign-ons: ISPs, networking companies and engineers opposed to FCC privacy repeal
>>> 
>>> All:
>>> 
>>> It's worth noting that most of EFF's list consists of individuals
>>> and/or politically connected organizations, not actual ISPs. This
>>> is for good reason. EFF was founded with the intention of creating
>>> a civil rights organization but has morphed into a captive
>>> corporate lobbying shop for Google, to which several of its board
>>> members have close financial ties. EFF opposes the interests of
>>> hard working ISPs and routinely denigrates them and attempts to
>>> foster promotes hatred of them. It also promotes and lobbies for
>>> regulations which advantage Google and disadvantage ISPs --
>>> including the so-called "broadband privacy" regulations, which
>>> heavily burden ISPs while exempting Google from all oversight.
>>> 
>>> No knowledgeable network professional or ISP would support the
>>> current FCC rules. Both they AND the FCC's illegal Title II
>>> classification of ISPs must be rolled back, restoring the FTC's
>>> ability to apply uniform and apolitical privacy standards to all of
>>> the players in the Internet ecosystem. The first step is to support
>>> S.J. Res 34/H.J. Res 86, the Congressional resolution which would
>>> revoke the current FCC regulations that were written and paid for
>>> by Google and its lobbyists. So, DO contact  your legislators...
>>> but do so in support of the resolutions that will repeal the
>>> regulations. It is vital to the future of the Internet.
>>> 
>>> --Brett Glass, Owner and Founder, LARIAT.NET
>>> 
>>> At 05:05 PM 3/26/2017, Peter Eckersley wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Dear network operators,
>>>> 
>>>> I'm sure this is a controversial topic in the NANOG community, but EFF and a
>>>> number of ISPs and networking companies are writing to Congress opposing the
>>>> repeal of the FCC's broadband privacy rules, which require explicit opt-in
>>>> consent before ISPs use or sell sensitive, non-anonymized data (including
>>>> non-anonymized locations and browsing histories).
>>>> 
>>>> If you or your employer would like to sign on to such a letter, please reply
>>>> off-list by midday Monday with your name, and a one-sentence description of
>>>> your affiliation and/or major career accomplishments.
>>> 