Wheeler and Industry Face Off on California ISP Privacy Bill

Donald Trump (see 1709130052). A Tuesday amendment pushed back the bill’s effective date to Jan. 1, 2019, and cut security and disclosure requirements. If passed in the Senate, the Assembly would need to concur because AB-375 started life with a different title. Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler supported the California bill in a Wednesday letter to author Assemblymember Ed Chau (D). It “would reestablish a simple and basic concept that consumers should be able to control how their data is used and shared by their Internet Service Providers,” wrote Wheeler. The bill as amended “will restore the privacy protections that Congress took away,” said the former chairman, predicting other states would follow. Industry condemned the bill, in a letter this week to senators. “AB 375 is vague and unclear to a degree that will have serious effects on consumers and businesses,” said AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Sprint and other companies and business groups. “The bill would also lead to recurring pop-ups to consumers that would be desensitizing and give opportunities to hackers. The bill also prevents internet providers from using information they have long relied upon to prevent cybersecurity attacks and improve their service.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation blogged Wednesday that the industry points are “lies,” and the Center for Democracy and Technology slammed an anonymous website that, like the industry letter, claimed the bill makes consumers vulnerable to pop-ups, hackers and cyberattacks. CDT Policy Analyst Natasha Duarte blogged: “These claims are not just false -- they shamefully exploit internet users’ understandable fears about data security.”