WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress on Tuesday passed a bill for President Donald Trump’s signature that would empower internet service providers to snoop on users without their consent and sell the data to marketers. ADVERTISING WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress
WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress on Tuesday passed a bill for President Donald Trump’s signature that would empower internet service providers to snoop on users without their consent and sell the data to marketers.
Republican proponents of the measure hailed the measure as a way to level the playing field for broadband companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon and give them a leg up against content companies like Google and Facebook.
Democratic opponents said the measure would allow broadband companies to monitor all aspects of daily computer usage and reap profits by selling intimate data to advertisers.
Internet security experts also predicted a wide range of other potential effect, from lenders using data to act on loan applications to criminal finding a sweet new collection of data to hack.
“We believe today’s misguided vote will unleash even more ‘Big Data’ profiling and tracking of Americans, and spur an array of discriminatory practices,” said Katharina Kopp, policy director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy organization based in Washington.
“Information about your activities may wind up being used to make adverse decisions about you. Something your kids search for online could be the basis for why you are denied a loan,” said Peter Eckersley, chief computer scientist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco.
Companies, too, could find sensitive information compromised.
“If an ISP can sell information about how many of your employees are searching for jobs right now, why would they not traffic in that?” Eckersley asked.
The House vote cleaved closely to party lines, passing 215 to 205, with 15 Republicans breaking ranks to oppose the measure. No Democrats supported it. The vote came a week after the Senate approved the measure precisely along party lines. Trump is expected to sign the bill without delay.
Republicans favoring the rollback of Federal Communications Commission regulations, enacted in 10 days before last year’s presidential election, said the move is part of efforts to sweep away unnecessary regulation.
Rep. Michael C. Burgess, a Texas Republican, said the FCC rules were “promulgated by bureaucrats who remain unaccountable to the American people.”
Burgess, who led the House Republican debate, said broadband providers are held to a different standard than content giants like Google and Facebook, which already collect some user data, under an existing system in which the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission share aspects of regulation.
“Having two privacy cops on the beat will create confusion within the internet ecosystem,” echoed Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
Several Democratic lawmakers voiced anger at the proposed rollback on privacy, calling it an assault on a precious right so that corporate interests may profit.
“It is outrageous,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat. “I can’t believe that a person who is a constitutional conservative would vote for a monstrosity like this.”
