14 DAY TRIAL // The US Congress and the White House may have decided to nix the online privacy rules set down by the Obama administration, but some states are trying to fight back and replace them.
According to Recode, lawmakers in at least three capitals are trying to look for ways of imposing new restrictions on the way Internet Service Providers and other companies can collect and share their customers' sensitive data. Those three capitals are Maryland, Minnesota, and Montana.
As you may have found out already, the Federal Communications Commission issued some new rules last year, rules that telcos weren't too happy about. These rules banned ISPs from selling people's sensitive data, including web browsing history to marketers, without even needing their permission. Before the rules could even go into effect, Republicans in Congress voted to scrap the previous order, which Trump signed off early this week.
This is clearly a battle won by ISPs, but it doesn't mean the war is over. In fact, privacy advocates have turned to individual states, hoping that local lawmakers could make a difference and rein in the industry's chase after money at the expense of people's privacy.
And so it begins
One case is already underway in Maryland where privacy advocates were to take their case in front of lawmakers who were holding a hearing on a bill that would penalize ISPs that sell or transfer personal data of their customers without getting their express and affirmative permission. This didn't sit well with telcos, as you can imagine.
“Individual state efforts that deviate from a strong, consistent federal privacy framework do not fit with how consumers traverse the global internet and are more likely to harm consumers and internet innovation than help,” a spokesperson with USTelecom told Recode.
Montana also has plans to rein in the ISPs a little bit by inserting into their 2018-2019 budget a rule blocking Internet providers from winning state contracts unless they obtain customers' consent before selling their information. In Minnesota, lawmakers have already taken similar action.