Freak-out boomerangs on internet privacy provocateurs
Last week, Congress voted to halt new digital privacy regulations that the Obama-era Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed and were about to take effect. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had already been policing digital privacy for the last 20 years, so the new rules from a distinct agency would have been duplicative, contradictory, and confusing. The new rules, moreover, would have discriminated against certain internet firms, while favoring others, as opposed to the long-standing rules that govern everyone. The vote, under the Congressional Review Act, and yesterday’s signature by President Trump, was thus the first step in a common-sense consolidation of privacy enforcement back at the FTC.
You wouldn’t have known any of this had you been reading major newspapers or technology news sites, which misinformed readers by suggesting that (1) the move eliminated privacy regulation and (2) ISPs and not internet search and social networking firms are the biggest collectors of online data.
The architect of the intrusive and discriminatory rules, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, took to the New York Times, for example, to tell us “How the Republicans Sold Your Privacy to Internet Providers.” On the same day, the Times also editorialized that “Republicans Attack Internet Privacy.” The tech magazine Wired headlined that “Congress is about to give away your online privacy.” And the Los Angeles Times headlined: “Senate votes to kill privacy rules meant to protect people’s sensitive data from their Internet providers.” The tech news site Recode was just as bad: “Congress just voted to strip away FCC rules that protected your internet privacy.”
Over at High Tech Forum, however, our old friend Richard Bennett found a simple way to expose the hysteria, hypocrisy, and mendacity of these claims.
See, the big news sites are among the most intensive users of tracking networks, which collect data on your web browsing and searching and feed it back to advertisers and other interested parties. This is how Google, Facebook, and content firms reliant on advertising like The New York Times, LA Times, and Wired make money. They are platforms to collect your data.
Well, Bennett peaked behind the curtain and looked at all the tracking networks running on these news sites at the very moment they were editorializing against Congress’s supposed giveaway of your precious privacy. Here’s what he found: 26 tracking networks running on Wired’s website, 44 tracking networks running at the New York Times, and 128 trackers collecting your data at the Los Angeles Times.
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Freak-out boomerangs on internet privacy provocateurs
Πηγή: techpolicydaily.com
