The recent Senate Internet privacy vote is more complicated than you think

Wired generally is not in favor of the rollback of the yet to be implemented regulations, (These regs still allowed Google and Facebook to sell your information. Just not Internet service providers like Comcast.) but they give a good sense of the nuance.

(From Wired)

Even if you agree that the FCC’s rules are unfair or confusing, using the Congressional Review Act to reverse them completely at best complicates future privacy enforcement. One problem lies in the phrase “substantially similar.” The act is seldom used, and depending on how courts interpret it, the FCC could end up barred from introducing even the less controversial parts of the privacy order. “The only difference between the FCC rules and the FTC rules is that [the FCC rules] moves web browsing history to the ‘sensitive data’ category,” says Dallas Harris of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. In other words, the FCC could be banned even from passing a less strict set of rules closer to the FTC’s provisions.

That could be a big problem even if the FCC or Congress reverses the common carrier classification that gave the agency the authority to enact its privacy rules in the first place. Most companies that sell internet access also offer telephone service, which are unequivocally common carrier services. And under one interpretation of the appeals court’s ruling last year, that would keep telcos under the FCC’s jurisdiction anyway instead of throwing it back to the FTC. With the FCC hobbled by Congress from passing new privacy rules, neither agency would have the ability to enact meaningful privacy guidelines.

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