“Today’s FCC action unfortunately mistakes a good headline for actual headway in advancing consistent standards of privacy protection and fair competition. Under the FCC’s proposal, ISPs would have far more onerous requirements than the ones imposed on other large online entities that have access to a wider range of user information than ISPs.
Recently, a cross-section of the broadband industry put forward a technology-neutral privacy framework guided by principles of transparency, data security, and consumer choice. In contrast, today’s FCC proposal will only lead to greater consumer confusion about how their online data is protected, rather than furthering an approach grounded in greater consistency and fairness among all Internet participants. As broadband providers long committed to protecting the privacy of our customers, we hope that a more considered review of the facts and the potential negative consequences of its proposal will convince the Commission to move in a different direction.”
