Google does the same thing in a different way: it uses your search results, it may use the Chrome browser, and it uses its various services – Gmail being the big one – to build up a profile of who you are. Facebook pulls all this information together, figures out who you are, and then sends you ads that are included in its massive pool of ads. That means that a company selling, say, a new electric car, will be able to pay Facebook to put its ads in front of you based on its own criteria: we are targeting families with parents aged between 30 and 45 who live in the San Francisco Bay Area.įacebook knows who you are because you are permanently logged into Facebook, and not only do you post a lot of information there but you also use your Facebook login to get into other sites. They sell the data in aggregate and keep a tight control on the fine details. Both these companies build up a huge amount of information on individual users and then sell them.
Well, at the moment, it gives them the right to effectively sell ads like Facebook and Google. So, setting aside hyperbole or extrapolation, what does this actually mean for end users? What can ISPs really see? And what can they really sell? Critically, however, the situation looks set to stay unchanged for several years, and that gives ISPs an incentive to build new systems that provide maximum financial return on selling customer data. So, unless the FCC or Congress scrap the net neutrality rules that pulled ISPs under the FCC's jurisdiction – something which, if it does happen, is going to take some time – the result of the vote, for ISPs, is that they have an open field to sell their customers' data. Privacy rules that are "substantially similar" cannot be reintroduced without the approval of Congress now that the "congressional disapproval" vote has passed. On top of that, Congressional use of what was an obscure piece of legislation until two months ago – the Congressional Review Act – effectively introduces a permanent ban on the FCC rules. The new chair, Ajit Pai, killed off the new FCC privacy rules literally days before they were due to take effect, leaving a situation where ISPs are no longer under FTC jurisdiction and there are no FCC rules for them to adhere to. That meant the two Republican commissioners held a majority. Meanwhile, back at the FCC, thanks to presidential politics and the election of Donald Trump, two commissioners – both Democrats – left.
#TIME WARNER INTERNET USAGE MONITOR TV#
If you also had TV or phone service, the price jumped $60 per month. Take that "service" off and the price jumped $29 per month. This opt-in issue is what exposed the value of such data to ISPs: when Google launched its Fiber Gigabit offering in various cities for just $70 a month, AT&T responded by offering pretty much the same service at the same price point – but to get that price you had to agree to be a part of its " Internet Preferences" program, which gave it permission to examine your web traffic and sell it on.
When US comms watchdog the FCC controversially declared that broadband providers were "common carriers" along the same lines as telephone companies, one of the many impacts was that it pulled enforcement of data privacy rules away from US trade watchdog the FTC and gave it to the FCC (which has very limited experience in consumer issues).Īs a result of that, the FCC passed new privacy rules that are a little stronger than FTC rules, mostly in that they are preemptive and that they require ISPs to give customers an opt-in option for their most sensitive information – in other words, they have to actively get your permission before selling that data. The irony is that just a few months ago the situation was the polar opposite. With cable companies now given strong financial incentive to draw on user information and habits, and with the stick of regulatory intervention effectively thrown away, it may result in significant societal changes. It is difficult to underestimate the impact that the shift away from data privacy to open season on personal information sales may have. With over 100 million households online in the United States, that means Congress has just given Big Cable an annual payday of between $35bn and $70bn.
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