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Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

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Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#21

Post by darkpuma »

weka wrote: post #20
mrguyorama wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bill prevents the company from denying or penalizing you for opting out of the data selling, and gives consumers the right to opt out at any time.

It should be opt-in but ... hey. It's something.

May as well forbid it outright at that point.

(They should. Everybody deserves protection from this, even the people who don't understand the threat it poses. The uninformed, ignorant or naive all deserve protection, since preying on ignorance or naivety is generally considered abhorrent by anybody who's not totally morally defective.)

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#22

Post by WillPostForFood »

weka wrote: post #20
mrguyorama wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bill prevents the company from denying or penalizing you for opting out of the data selling, and gives consumers the right to opt out at any time.

It should be opt-in but ... hey. It's something.

You are opted-out of them sharing by default. It allows you to opt-in to share

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#23

Post by [deleted] »

mrguyorama wrote: post #11

I couldn't find links to the actual bill anywhere so I tracked it down: http://legislature.maine.gov/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=2800... The summary: "This bill prohibits a provider of broadband Internet access service from using, disclosing, selling or permitting access to customer personal information unless the customer expressly consents to that use, disclosure, sale or access. The bill provides other exceptions u…

[deleted]

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#24

Post by WillPostForFood »

Frost1x wrote: post #13

It's all political marketing to make consumers continue to feel good about being screwed over more and more by corporate policy following demands of the very wealthy.

What’s the point of this level of cynical response when a good bill passes? Let’s give some props and do more good things, not sulk.

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#25

Post by oldjokes »

mrguyorama wrote: post #11

I couldn't find links to the actual bill anywhere so I tracked it down: http://legislature.maine.gov/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=2800... The summary: "This bill prohibits a provider of broadband Internet access service from using, disclosing, selling or permitting access to customer personal information unless the customer expressly consents to that use, disclosure, sale or access. The bill provides other exceptions u…

I wonder what "use" means here. Is it now illegal for them to log your traffic at all? I think that would be the ideal way to phrase the law, you can't even write to a logfile/dbms much less do anything with that data unless the user opts in.

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#26

Post by [deleted] »

ethanpil wrote: post #7

For all practical purposes it won't make a difference. When you sign up for ISP service there will be a new small paragraph buried deep in the long 10000+ word contract text that says you consent to them selling your browsing data, which you have to sign to start the service, which nobody reads anyway.

[deleted]

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#27

Post by darkpuma »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #24
Frost1x wrote: post #13

It's all political marketing to make consumers continue to feel good about being screwed over more and more by corporate policy following demands of the very wealthy.

What’s the point of this level of cynical response when a good bill passes? Let’s give some props and do more good things, not sulk.

It's a good bill iff it proves effective. I'm optimistic that it will, but that still remains to be seen.

(An ineffective bill can be worse than none at all, since it's existence may confuse people who believe they have protection when in reality the legislation is less effective than their perception of it.)

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#28

Post by asdkhadsj »

lotu wrote: post #6
tyfon wrote: post #4

Kind of ironic, when I click it I am presented with a huge oath overlay saying how much they care about my privacy without a "Reject all" button anywhere in sight.

Really we need to stop relying on third parties to use our data "correctly" no-one has the time and expertise to carfully read and understand what these third parties say they intend to do with the data and then actually verify that they did what they said. It is much easier to just assume these third parties will do whatever they want and either not share the data or accept that it will be used in ways you can't con…

I agree, but I can't imagine a world where the internet works any different than currently in your scenario.

Eg, right now (or at least a few years ago) companies could basically do anything with your data. And they did. It's getting worse too, with advanced techniques on identifying individuals across website bounds, etc.

That is what is spawning these sorts of debates, laws, etc. So my question to you is while I agree that we have to assume malice (for ease of discussion), we can't actively allow or encourage malice right? So if we do nothing, do we just accept that they do who knows what with our data?

Ie, I think we mostly agree that what is going on right (with our data) now is bad. So don't we have to do something? What do you see as the right solution?

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#29

Post by ineedasername »

math_and_stuff wrote: post #15
ethanpil wrote: post #7

For all practical purposes it won't make a difference. When you sign up for ISP service there will be a new small paragraph buried deep in the long 10000+ word contract text that says you consent to them selling your browsing data, which you have to sign to start the service, which nobody reads anyway.

The bill explicitly prevents that behavior. "The 'opt-in' nature...would set it apart from other state internet privacy laws... the proposed Maine law also would prohibit any [ISP] from making the sale of customer data part of its mandatory [TOS]. It also could not charge higher fees to customers who refuse to opt in" https://www.pressherald.com/2019/05/29/maine-on-track-to-pas...

I wish that would make much of a difference, but likely there will just be a small paragraph under the main TOS with a big checkbox next to it, that almost no one will read and almost everyone will check.

Re: Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing data without consent

#30

Post by acdha »

weka wrote: post #20
mrguyorama wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bill prevents the company from denying or penalizing you for opting out of the data selling, and gives consumers the right to opt out at any time.

It should be opt-in but ... hey. It's something.

According to the bill text someone else linked (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20062182) it’s out-in, requiring “express, affirmative consent” which should also rule out burying it in a footnote of the fine print.
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