{"id":12403,"date":"2018-05-26T10:17:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T18:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/05\/26\/news-6172\/"},"modified":"2018-05-26T10:17:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T18:17:08","slug":"news-6172","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/05\/26\/news-6172\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Your Location Data No Longer Private?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sat, 26 May 2018 16:18:48 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

The past month has seen one blockbuster revelation after another about how our mobile phone and broadband providers have been leaking highly sensitive customer information, including real-time location data<\/a> and customer account details. In the wake of these consumer privacy debacles, many are left wondering who’s responsible for policing these industries? How exactly did we get to this point? What prospects are there for changes to address this national privacy crisis at the legislative and regulatory levels? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in this article.<\/p>\n

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In 2015,\u00a0the Federal Communications Commission<\/strong> under the Obama Administration reclassified broadband Internet companies as telecommunications providers, which gave the agency authority to regulate broadband providers the same way as telephone companies.<\/p>\n

The FCC also came up with so-called “net neutrality<\/strong>” rules designed to prohibit Internet providers from blocking or slowing down traffic, or from offering “fast lane” access to companies willing to pay extra for certain content or for higher quality service.<\/p>\n

In mid-2016, the FCC adopted new privacy rules for all Internet providers that would have required providers to seek opt-in permission from customers before collecting, storing, sharing and selling anything that might be considered sensitive — including Web browsing, application usage and location information, as well as financial and health data.<\/p>\n

But the Obama administration’s new FCC privacy rules didn’t become final until December 2016, a month after then President-elect Trump<\/strong> was welcomed into office by a Republican controlled House and Senate.<\/p>\n

Congress still had 90 legislative days (when lawmakers are physically in session) to pass a resolution killing the privacy regulations, and on March 23, 2017 the Senate voted 50-48 to repeal them. Approval of the repeal in the House passed quickly thereafter, and President Trump officially signed it on April 3, 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an op-ed<\/a> published in The Washington Post<\/em>, Ajit Pai<\/strong> — a former Verizon<\/strong> lawyer and President Trump’s pick to lead the FCC — said “despite hyperventilating headlines, Internet service providers have never planned to sell your individual browsing history to third parties.”<\/p>\n

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FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“That\u2019s simply not how online advertising works,” Pai wrote. “And doing so would violate ISPs\u2019 privacy promises. Second, Congress\u2019s decision last week didn\u2019t remove existing privacy protections; it simply cleared the way for us to work together to reinstate a rational and effective system for protecting consumer privacy.”<\/p>\n

Sen. Bill Nelson<\/strong> (D-Fla.) came to a different conclusion, predicting that the repeal of the FCC privacy rules would allow broadband providers to collect and sell a “gold mine of data” about customers.<\/p>\n