California May Restore Broadband Privacy Rules Killed By Congress and Trump (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A proposed law in California would require Internet service providers to obtain customers' permission before they use, share, or sell the customers' Web browsing history. The California Broadband Internet Privacy Act, a bill introduced by Assembly member Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park) on Monday, is very similar to an Obama-era privacy rule that was scheduled to take effect across the US until President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress eliminated it. If Chau's bill becomes law, ISPs in California would have to get subscribers' opt-in consent before using browsing history and other sensitive information in order to serve personalized advertisements. Consumers would have the right to revoke their consent at any time. The opt-in requirement in Chau's bill would apply to "Web browsing history, application usage history, content of communications, and origin and destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of all traffic." The requirement would also apply to geolocation data, IP addresses, financial and health information, information pertaining to minors, names and billing information, Social Security numbers, demographic information, and personal details such as physical addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers.

Comments

This is how it should be

[SuperKendall]

Something like this should never have been set at a national level to begin with. Let states decide what makes sense from a privacy standpoint and then consumers can decide where they want to live based on restrictions they have to liver under making sense or not.

Re:This is how it should be

[SuperKendall]

Isn't there a big cost to patchwork of states' policies?

It's a smaller cost than a small ISP trying to start up but having to comply with often massive federal regulation. It also provides a natural barrier to ISPs being able to sweep the country.

But if the ISP simply doesn't ever both to sell any user data (which not have to date), the cost to comply with a variety of privacy regulations is near zero.

I actually think there is a place for ISP's in this world that cost less but consumers allow the service to sell anonymized data - people already do this by the millions with free apps. Some people do not care about privacy and they should be allowed to reap the rewards for allowing others to use this information.

It also allows broadband companies to jurisdiction-shop non?

Yes if they want to leave money on the table. Do you think to comply with a regulation they are already complying with, any ISP's will leave the state? No.