More than 50 U.S. consumer and privacy organizations including the Center for Digital Democracy and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have co-signed a letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler calling for “strong rules” to protect the privacy of broadband users by reining in ISPs’ and telcos’ ability to harvest user data without explicit consent.
Last year, as part of its Net Neutrality rulemaking, the FCC reclassified broadband as a so-called ‘Title II telecommunications service’ under the 1934 Communications Act — a move that also paves the way for a more active regulation of how ISPs use consumer data, given that the FCC can issue proper privacy regulations, vs the FTC only being able to do so for minors (under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).
