The US House of Representatives agreed to repeal the FCC’s broadband privacy rules with a 215 to 205 vote on Tuesday. For this bill to now become official, it only needs the President’s signature.
In order to make the internet a place we can all enjoy, rules on net neutrality and privacy were put in place to make sure that no ISP or advertiser can leverage its dominance in the detriment of the consumer. All that took a massive blow last Friday, when the US Senate voted to scrap these rules, in the benefit of ISPs. Guess what the US House of Representatives did on March 28?
With a vote of 215 to 205 along party lines, the House agreed to the contents of the bill, thus repealing the FCC’s latest (and expanded) set of broadband privacy rules. This would basically allow ISPs to sell consumers’ browsing data without obstacle.
On the reasoning behind the approval, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Tex.) said the FCC rules were an arbitrary government intervention in the free market, which can inhibit security and market competition. Furthermore, he stated that the cybersecurity notification requirements could lead to “notice fatigue”, simultaneously causing confusion due to “subjecting part of the Internet ecosystem to different rules and jurisdictions”.
