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5 Things You Should Know About the FCC’s Proposed Privacy Rules

5 Things You Should Know About the FCC’s Proposed Privacy Rules

It stops Verizon’s zombie cookie in its tracks, but allows AT&T to keep charging customers extra if they want privacy.

Federal Communications Commisison Chairman Tom Wheeler testifies at a committee hearing on Capitol Hill in March 2015. (Lauren Victoria Burke/AP Photo)

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission proposed new privacy rules for Internet providers. The proposal was immediately praised by privacy advocates as “a major step forward” and lambasted by AT&T as an effort to place a “thumb on the scale in favor of Internet companies.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler stopped by our offices to explain the proposal, which will be voted on by the commission later this year after a period of public comment. Here is what you need to know about the proposed rules.

  1. It is meant to provide the same level of privacy protection to Internet customers’ data that companies must, by law, apply to telephone customers’ data.

  2. The rules also broaden the types of data that are protected, Wheeler said. The old rules for telephone operators covered “Customer Proprietary Network Information” – such as the duration and frequency of calls placed by customers and where they were placed from.

    Wheeler said the proposal includes Internet activities tied to a unique identifying number rather than a person’s actual name or phone number. Under the proposed rules, Internet providers could not, without consent, track customers using a unique number tied to a customer’s Internet activity or phone location.

    …click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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