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Consumer privacy law is back in play in Sacramento

7 December 2018 by Steve Blum
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Sf naked the streets

Monday’s brief meeting of the California legislature didn’t produce any broadband-related bills, with the possible exception of a placeholder introduced by assemblyman Ed Chau (D – Los Angeles). Assembly bill 25 would amend the privacy bill that California lawmakers passed in 2018, but it doesn’t say how.

California’s new privacy law puts tight restrictions on how online companies can use customer data, and how they have to safeguard it. Chau was the author of that bill, which was passed as part of a deal to keep an even tougher privacy initiative off of the November ballot.… More

Charter, Comcast tell FTC to kill California broadband laws

28 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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Comcast and Charter Communications want the Federal Trade Commission to preempt California’s data privacy law, and any other state laws regarding broadband service. In comments filed last week, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), which serves as a Washington, D.C. lobbying front for Comcast, Charter and other cable companies, ask the FTC to tell state lawmakers and officials that they can’t enforce broadband service rules beyond what federal regulators think is appropriate (h/t to Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica for the pointer)…

The FTC should ensure that the Internet is subject to uniform, consistent federal regulations, including by issuing guidance explicitly setting forth that inconsistent state and local requirements are preempted…

California’s recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 imposes numerous requirements that differ from, and even conflict with, federal law.174 Moreover, a patchwork of state-level rules applying only to BIAS providers would undercut existing federal policy basing enforcement on what information is collected and how it is used, rather than on who is collecting the information.

… More

California legislature to decide privacy, Internet commerce bills

26 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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Consumer privacy, police surveillance, online retailing, bots and social media were all targets of bills introduced this year in the California legislature. One major bill already passed, a couple are dead and the rest are queued up for a decision this week, as lawmakers prepare to finish up the 2018 session on Friday.

Assembly bill 375 established strict consumer data privacy rules. It was signed into law by the governor earlier this year. It’s being tweaked, though.… More

California consumer privacy law, online and off, now on the books

29 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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Californians will have control over the way their personal information is used by businesses, including online platforms. Probably. Governor Jerry Brown signed assembly bill 375 into law, after it was approved by the state senate and assembly in whirlwind fashion yesterday. According to the analysis prepared by staff for the assembly privacy and communications committee – which is chaired by the bill’s author, assemblyman Ed Chau (D – Monterey Park) – consumers will gain…

The right to know what [personal information (PI)] is being collected about them and whether their PI is being sold and to whom; the right to access their PI; the right to delete PI collected from them; the right to opt-out or opt-in to the sale of their PI, depending on age of the consumer; and the right to equal service and price, even if they exercise such right.

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Internet privacy bill rises from the dead at California capitol

24 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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California lawmakers have another shot at creating strong data privacy rules. Assembly bill 375, authored by assemblyman Ed Chau (D – Monterey Park), was originally aimed at Internet service providers. It would have reinstated ISP privacy rules that were scrapped by the republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission. It died last year after legislative leaders bowed to back door pressure and “dirty tricks” from ISPs, like AT&T and Comcast, and Silicon Valley’s big online players, like Google and Facebook.… More

Internet, telecoms legislation introduced in Sacramento, but not all cards are on the table

19 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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A handful of substantive telecoms and Internet services bills and a stack of placeholders were introduced in the California legislature by last Friday. That was deadline for new bills, although it’s largely a formality – any of the placeholders (or the substantive bills) can get gutted, amended and turned into anything at all, right up to the end of the session in August.

Assemblyman Ed Chau (D – Monterey Park) is taking another run at Internet privacy, although in a more limited way than last year.… More

Comcast asks FCC for privilege without responsibility

10 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Comcast has joined Verizon in pushing the Federal Communications Commission to override state and local laws that might affect their business. In a required notice filed after a private meeting with FCC chair Ajit Pai’s top staffers, a lawyer for Comcast said they urged the FCC to overturn its 2015 decision to regulate broadband as a common carrier service, and to make sure that state and local governments didn’t try to pick up the slack…

At the meeting, we reiterated Comcast’s support for restoring its prior classification of broadband Internet access service (“BIAS”) as an interstate information service and reversing the 2015 decision to classify BIAS as a [common carrier] telecommunications service…

We also emphasized that the Commission’s order in this proceeding should include a clear, affirmative ruling that expressly confirms the primacy of federal law with respect to BIAS as an interstate information service, and that preempts state and local efforts to regulate BIAS either directly or indirectly.

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Swat away state broadband laws, Verizon tells FCC

2 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Verizon doesn’t like it when states pass laws that affect its business, and now it wants the Federal Communications Commission to simply sweep those annoying rules away with a single, blanket preemption.

In a white paper filed with the FCC, Verizon points to ongoing efforts in California, and several other states, to re-impose Internet privacy rules that were overturned earlier this year by the federal government. It also fears that states will try to reinstate net neutrality requirements, and other common carrier obligations that the FCC is likely to scrap in the coming months.… More

Silicon Valley joined with telcos, cable to defeat California privacy law, says EFF

27 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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An unholy alliance between big tech interests and big telecoms companies succeeded in spiking an Internet privacy bill in Sacramento this year, according to the Electronic Freedom Foundation. In a blog post, the EFF’s Ernesto Falcon says that “Google and Facebook locked arms with AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast to oppose” assembly bill 375…

How do we know? Because we were on the ground in Sacramento in September to witness every last-minute dirty trick to stop A.B.

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Big telecom cash and influence buys three big wins in California legislature

16 September 2017 by Steve Blum
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The California legislature slipped past its midnight deadline last night, and kept working, or not, for a couple hours into the morning. From a broadband perspective, it didn’t make much difference. Assembly bill 375 never made it to a floor vote in the senate, let alone to the necessary final vote in the assembly.

As a result, California will not enact Internet privacy rules that were axed earlier this year by congressional republicans and the Trump administration.… More