Wireless Industry Lobbies To Ban States From Protecting Your Privacy, Net Neutrality

In the wake of the Trump administration's decision to gut modest FCC consumer privacy protections and net neutrality rules, telecom lobbyists are working overtime trying to stop states from filling the void. In the wake of the FCC's wholesale dismantling of consumer protections, states like California have tried to pass their own laws protecting your broadband privacy rights online, only to find the efforts scuttled by AT&T, Verizon and Comcast lobbyists, who've been more than happy to spread all manner of disinformation as to what the rules did or didn't do.

Worried that states might actually stand up for consumers in the wake of the looming attack on net neutrality, both Verizon and Comcast have been lobbying the FCC to ban states from protecting your privacy and net neutrality. The two companies were also joined this week by the wireless industry's biggest lobbying and policy organization, the CTIA. In an ex parte filing (pdf) with the FCC, wireless carriers whine about how unfair it is that states attempted to protect user privacy after the federal government made it clear it had no such interest:

"Earlier this year, legislators in various states attempted to countermand Congressional action on broadband privacy regulations. When states and localities are provided a wide berth to test the boundaries of what is or is not consistent with Congressional objectives, the Commission and the courts are forced to evaluate regulations case-by-case, with broadband providers subject to a patchwork of mandates at issue during the review."

Like Comcast and Verizon, the wireless industry would have you forget that states wouldn't be running to create discordant privacy protections if these same lobbyists hadn't just successfully killed modest federal rules. This is a problem caused entirely by lobbyists for some of the least competitive companies in America. Said lobbyists would also have you ignore the fact that when California presented a fairly modest EFF approved replacement that could be used as a template for other states -- they made up a whole bunch of bullshit to scuttle the effort.

Most importantly these folks would have you ignore that they're perfectly fine with states writing shitty, protectionist regulations designed solely to protect uncompetitive duopolists, but state legislation that actually attempts to protect consumers is just a bridge too far. When critics suggest that maybe giant ISPs shouldn't get to write awful state laws, said ISPs will often lament an "attack on states rights." But here you'll notice the hypocrisy in having no problem dictating what local states can and can't do.

Further in, the wireless industry makes it clear it's worried that states will also try to protect net neutrality after lobbyists and the FCC vote to gut net neutrality rules on December 15:

"The Commission therefore should preempt any state or local broadband-specific regulation, irrespective of whether the state or locality claims that its regulation promotes or supplements federal goals. Thus, for example, state "network neutrality" regulations addressing the treatment of traffic on the network would be preempted, as would state broadband-specific privacy requirements."

The end goal is virtually no oversight for an industry that has proven repeatedly that it's incapable of regulating itself within the boundaries of good taste. From AT&T charging broadband users hundreds of dollars annually just to opt out of snoopvertising, to Verizon covertly modifying user packets to track users around the internet, these companies have repeatedly shown that there's no end to the privacy-eroding concepts they'd love to implement. Without any meaningful guard rails on the state or federal level, and only modest market pressure to behave due to limited competition, you can expect this kind of behavior to get immeasurably worse.