DSL Reports – April 3, 2017
By Karl Bode
Minnesota’s state Senate has week voted 66-1 to pass its own new broadband privacy protections in the wake of Congress’ decision to sell consumers out on privacy. Senator Ron Latz introduced a privacy amendment to the Minnesota Senate’s economic development budget bill, insisting the effort was desperately needed in the wake of Congress killing FCC consumer broadband privacy protections. The new rules prohibit the sale of broadband subscriber data without express consent. …
Groups like The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which promote more regional grass roots broadband competition, applauded the effort.
“Consumer privacy protections should be bipartisan, it’s a no-brainer,” says Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “But more importantly, we should have a choice in providers so we can make these decisions for ourselves. Many locally-based ISPs already protect subscriber privacy, but they don’t have the clout of a Comcast or an AT&T.”
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