Congress shot down the FCC’s internet privacy rules this week, and in doing so, created a world of confusion over what Americans should expect when it comes to online privacy. The gutted rules would have explicitly prohibited internet providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from sharing your web browsing history with other companies, and they would have put firm restrictions around how your data could be used. But this week’s joint resolution effectively turned back the clock to before the rules were proposed, opening the door for far more aggressive data-sharing.
With the protections gone, no one’s quite sure what to expect — some suspect their browsing habits are going up for sale, while others see no changes coming whatsoever. That uncertainty and confusion is justified: the rules Congress shot down were meant to clarify an existing set of already vague and confusing policies.
On some level, it’s being left up to internet service providers, or ISPs, to decide what the rules do and don’t allow them to do. And while none of them are very clear about their intentions, there’s plenty we can suss out based on what we already know. So to cut through the haze, we pulled together everything you need to know about the current state of online privacy rules.
What does the new resolution actually change?
This is a trickier question than you might think! Let’s take a step back: telecom regulation isn’t like criminal law, where the word of the law draws a clear line between what’s legal and illegal. Most of what the FCC does is interpreting the same law — the Telecom Act of 1934 — to apply to modern technologies like wireless internet and broadband.