{"id":176908,"date":"2020-02-21T17:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T22:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/02\/21\/and-the-supreme-court-will-probably-buy-this-bullsh\/"},"modified":"2020-02-21T17:38:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T22:38:00","slug":"and-the-supreme-court-will-probably-buy-this-bullsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/02\/21\/and-the-supreme-court-will-probably-buy-this-bullsh\/","title":{"rendered":"And the Supreme Court Will Probably Buy this Bullsh%$"},"content":{"rendered":"
The right wingers at the Supreme Court have for years used the first amendment to shut down common sense regulation of predatory businesses.<\/div>\n

My prediction is that they will do this again, and say that the first amendment protects ISP’s rights to resell your browser history<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The US state of Maine is violating internet broadband providers’ free speech by forcing them to ask for their customers\u2019 permission to sell their browser history, according to a new lawsuit. <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom are collectively suing [PDF<\/a>] Maine\u2019s attorney general Aaron Frey, and the chair and commissioners of Maine\u2019s Public Utilities Commission claiming that the statute, passed in June 2019, \u201cimposes unprecedented and unduly burdensome restrictions on ISPs\u2019, and only ISPs\u2019, protected speech.\u201d <\/p>\n

How so? Because it includes \u201crestrictions on how ISPs communicate with their own customers that are not remotely tailored to protecting consumer privacy.\u201d The lawsuit even explains that there is a \u201cproper way to protect consumer privacy\u201d – and that\u2019s the way the FCC does it, through \u201ctechnology-neutral, uniform regulation.\u201d Although that regulation is actually the lack of regulation. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still having a hard time understanding how requiring companies to get their customers\u2019 permission before they sell their personal data infringes the First Amendment, the lawsuit has more details. <\/p>\n

It \u201c(1) requires ISPs to secure \u2018opt-in\u2019 consent from their customers before using information that is not sensitive in nature or even personally identifying; (2) imposes an opt-out consent obligation on using data that are by definition not customer personal information; (3) limits ISPs from advertising or marketing non-communications-related services to their customers; and (4) prohibits ISPs from offering price discounts, rewards in loyalty programs, or other cost saving benefits in exchange for a customer\u2019s consent to use their personal information.\u201d <\/p>\n

All of this results in an \u201cexcessive burden\u201d on ISPs, they claim, especially because not everyone else had to do the same. The new statute includes \u201cno restrictions at all on the use, disclosure, or sale of customer personal information, whether sensitive or not, by the many other entities in the Internet ecosystem or traditional brick-and-mortar retailers,\u201d the lawsuit complains.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen, I think that we should get some stakes, honey, and a few anthills of REALLY<\/b> pissed off ants, and have a heart to heart with the senior executives of ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we should bring in their lawyers for a consult as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right wingers at the Supreme Court have for years used the first amendment to shut down common sense regulation of predatory businesses. My prediction is that they will do this again, and say that the first amendment protects ISP’s rights to resell your browser history: The US state of Maine is violating internet broadband …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[365,364,407,366,437],"class_list":["post-176908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-business","tag-evil","tag-justice","tag-privacy","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}