It’s Privacy Awareness Week May 8-12, and the Federal Trade Commission is urging you to secure your routers, IP cameras, and “Internet of Things” devices, take steps to control online tracking by advertisers, and protect your personal information when connecting mobile devices to a rental car’s infotainment system.
However, in April, President Donald Trump took a step that privacy advocates say will greatly reduce consumer’s Internet privacy. Trump signed a repeal of broadband privacy rules requiring Internet service providers to obtain consumers’ consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children's information, and web browsing history for advertising and marketing.
Adopted during the Obama administration, the rules hadn’t yet taken effect.
Susan Grant, director of consumer protection and privacy for the Consumer Federation of America, said the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband internet privacy rules were historic.
“For the first time, Americans would have a real say in how personal information that can be gleaned from their online activities could be used or shared for commercial purposes,” Grant said.
Trump had an opportunity to restore Americans’ broadband internet privacy rights by vetoing the proposal to take them away, but sadly failed to do so, she said
“There is a fundamental difference between Internet service providers and other companies that collect individuals’ personal information,” Grant said. “ISPs see everywhere we go and everything we do online that is not encrypted. We wouldn’t want the phone companies to listen in on our calls, or compile a list of who we call to sell to advertisers who would use that information to target us.”
She said leaving privacy to the Federal Trade Commission isn’t the solution.
“Other than the rules that Congress mandated to require parental consent to collect personal information online from children under age 13, the FTC has no rulemaking authority to protect Americans’ privacy,” Grant said. “Removing the ‘common carrier exemption’ to bring ISPs under the FTC’s jurisdiction would not change the agency’s inability to require them, or any other types of companies, to give Americans control over the use or sharing of their personal information.”
The theme of Privacy Awareness Week 2017 is “Share with Care.” It’s an annual initiative of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum that combines the efforts of privacy agencies in the region to share information about privacy practices and rules.
