Facebook Working With Comcast To Scuttle California Broadband Privacy Protections

from the watch-what-we-do,-not-what-we-say dept

Last year you might recall that the GOP and Trump administration rushed to not only kill net neutrality at ISP lobbyist behest, but also some pretty basic but important consumer privacy rules. The protections, which would have taken effect in March of 2017, simply required that ISPs be transparent about what personal data is collected and sold, while mandating that ISPs provide consumers with the ability to opt of said collection. But because informed and empowered consumers damper ad revenues, ISPs moved quickly to have the rules scuttled with the help of cash-compromised lawmakers.

When California lawmakers stepped in to then try and pass their own copy of those rules, ISPs worked in concert with Google and Facebook to scuttle those rules as well. As the EFF documented at the time, Google, Facebook, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast all collectively and repeatedly lied to state lawmakers, claiming the planned rules would harm children, increase internet popups, and somehow "embolden extremism" on the internet. The misleading lobbying effort was successful, and the proposal was quietly scuttled without too much fanfare in the tech press.

Obviously this behavior has some broader implications in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Especially given Facebook's insistence this week that it's open to being regulated on privacy, and is "outraged" by "deception" as it tries (poorly) to mount a sensible PR response to the entire kerfuffle:

But last year's joint ISP and Silicon Valley assault on consumer privacy protections wasn't a one off.

California privacy advocates are again pushing a new privacy proposal, this time dubbed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. Much like last year's effort the bill would require that companies be fully transparent about what data is being collected and sold (and to who), as well as mandating mandatory opt-out tools. And this proposal goes further than the FCC's discarded rules, in that it would ban ISPs from trying to charge consumers more for privacy, something that has already been implemented by AT&T (temporarily suspended as it chases merger approval) and considered by Comcast.

But privacy groups note that Facebook and Google are again working with major ISPs to kill the proposal, collectively funneling $1 million into a PAC custom built for that purpose:

Privacy advocates at Californians for Consumer Privacy also wrote a letter to Facebook this week expressing their lack of amusement at the effort in the wake of the Cambridge scandal:

"Something’s not adding up here,” Mactaggart writes. “It is time to be honest with Facebook users and shareholders about what information was collected, sold or breached in the Cambridge Analytica debacle; and to come clean about the true basis for your opposition to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018."

As we recently noted, however bad Facebook's mistakes have been on the privacy front, they're just a faint shadow of the anti-consumer behavior we've seen from the telecom sector on this front, suggesting that a disregard for privacy is a cross-industry norm, not an exemption. That said, while Google and Facebook love to portray themselves as the same kind of consumer allies they were a decade ago, their refusal to seriously protect net neutrality -- and their eagerness to work with loathed companies like Comcast to undermine consumer privacy -- consistently paints a decidedly different picture.

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: broadband, california, lobbying, privacy, transparency
Companies: at&t, cambridge analytica, comcast, facebook, google


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Richard (profile), 22 Mar 2018 @ 6:47am

    Outraged

    Why were they outraged - because they have now been classified alongside Russia which makes them an "acceptable enemy" in many peoples eyes.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 22 Mar 2018 @ 7:54am

      Re: Outraged

      I think the outrage is in that every time a lawmaker throws a hissy fit by doing something for their constituents, they have to throw repeated tantrums as in 'No, no, no, you work for us, not them, check your contributions!'.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2018 @ 7:59am

    not an exemption.

    Karl, shouldn't it be "exception"?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    MindParadox (profile), 22 Mar 2018 @ 8:20am

    It's funny, I did one of those "quit all social media" challenges, and now that the time period is nearly up, I don't have any desire to go back to any of it :P

    amazing what a few weeks without it does for ones attitude

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2018 @ 12:23pm

      Re: Oh, look! It's another ONE COMMENT PER YEAR "account"!

      MindParadox: 9 comments, 1 per year due to FOUR YEAR GAP; begun Jun 28th, 2011 https://www.techdirt.com/user/mindparadox

      This site is just infested with zombies who are dormant for years.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2018 @ 10:39am

    when will it dawn on people that the likes of the ISPS and Facebook are only interested in themselves and will go to any length to maintain their dominance, just like the entertainment industries, are not interested in the people and certainly NOT the rights of the people! as for 'Zhitterburger', he's nothing but a lying fucker who only got where he is through lies and deceit! but like all the wealthy people, in the USA in particular, he will throw money at members of Congress and they will fall over themselves to grab it, in return, letting him and his ilk off the hook!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2018 @ 11:09am

      Re:

      uh... it DID dawn on them.

      Why do you think people are asking for regulation?
      Sure, it is not going to work, but it does at least dawn on them. There is a passage in the Declaration of independence that explains people to a mutha fuckin teee!

      "...and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

      Read it, read it fifty fucking times until it sinks in.

      People would rather live under tyranny if that tyranny is easier to live under than to have liberty or to fight for that liberty.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2018 @ 11:27am

    FUCK FACEBOOK.. and Been saying that for decades.. first time in ALL CAPITALS.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2018 @ 12:13pm

    ...which makes your recent post look really fucking stupid, Karl.

    "If You're Pissed About Facebook's Privacy Abuses, You Should Be Four Times As Angry At The Broadband Industry"

    https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180320/10281539457/if-youre-pissed-about-facebooks-priv acy-abuses-you-should-be-four-times-as-angry-broadband-industry.shtml

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Wendy Cockcroft, 23 Mar 2018 @ 7:09am

      Re:

      If that were true his points would not have been consistent, but they are. As he stated before, the ISPs are even worse than Facebook et al because they've been working closely with the government to provide our data to them.

      This is something I've been aware of for some time. How come you're so late? Meanwhile, though it's true that FB et al have been playing fast and loose with our data they've not been quite as bad as the ISPs.

      That doesn't make any of it okay.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2018 @ 6:41pm

    Facebook working to destroy privacy. More news at 19:84.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.