Trump signs repeal of US broadband privacy rules

US President Donald Trump signed a repeal of Obama-
era broadband privacy rules, the White House said, a
victory for internet service providers and a blow to
privacy advocates, media reports on Tuesday.
US President, Donald Trump
Republicans in Congress last week narrowly passed the
repeal of the privacy rules with no Democratic support
and over the strong objections of privacy advocates.
The signing, disclosed in White House statement late on
Monday, follows strong criticism of the bill, which is a
win for AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon
Communications Inc.
The bill repeals regulations adopted in October by the
Federal Communications Commission under the Obama
administration requiring internet service providers to do
more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like
Alphabet Inc’s Google or Facebook Inc.
The rules had not yet taken effect but would have
required internet providers to obtain consumer consent
before using precise geolocation, financial information,
health information, children’s information and web
browsing history for advertising and marketing.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised the repeal in a statement
late on Monday for having “appropriately invalidated one
part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the internet.”
Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into
effect, were designed to benefit one group of favoured
companies, not online consumers.”
Pai said the FCC would work with the Federal Trade
Commission, which oversees websites, to restore the
“FTC’s authority to police internet service providers’
privacy practices.”