Between news reports featuring Russian-gate scandals, Syrian
missile attacks and challenges to North Korea, one important news
item went oddly underreported. That is the story about a loss of
our privacy and security by the new Congress.
FCC's new privacy rules
In October 2016, the Federal Communications Commission passed new
rules that would have required Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to
obtain your permission to effectively invade your privacy rights.
The rules would have kept providers such as Comcast and Time Warner
Cable from monetizing personal information based upon browser
history. This history may include activity such as your searches,
shopping habits and even secret obsessions. ISPs can insert adware
that is undetectable and tracks your traffic and records your
browsing history. This generates valuable data for the ISP,
maximizing its profits and leaving you vulnerable.
On October 27, 2016, in a 3-2 vote, the FCC approved new rules
regarding how ISPs handle their customers' browsing history,
mobile location data and other sensitive information generated by
virtue of their customers' use of the internet.
The purpose of the new rules was to restrict ISPs' ability to
share with advertisers and other third parties information
collected from users. This was viewed by many as a big victory for
privacy rights advocates. However, these rules are one of the more
immediate victims of the November 8, 2016 election, which brought
Republican control to both Congress and the White House.
The FCC's new rules effectively created some of the strongest
privacy regulations for any segment of the technology and
telecommunications industries and could have had significant impact
on ISPs' ability to make a profit.
The new rules required an opt-in standard for third-party data
uses. This is significant because historically in the U.S., privacy
guidelines require only that users opt-out of data uses such as ad
targeting based on behavioral data.
Also, not all internet entities were covered by the new FCC rules.
The rules affected only companies that connect
users to the internet, including Comcast, Verizon and Sprint. The
rules did not apply to internet companies that have huge
advertising businesses based on customer data, such as Facebook or
Google. Those companies are regulated by the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC). The result of the FCC's new rules would have
been a revenue and power shift away from ISPs towards already
internet giants.
The 115th Congress
In March of this year, the House and the Senate voted to overturn
the not-yet-implemented FCC new privacy rules. This was considered
a victory for ISPs, which argued against regulation since it
disadvantaged them compared to non-ISPs.
Congress' action not only upsets privacy right advocates and
impacts the privacy rights of individuals, but it also impacts
cybersecurity for the entire nation. Although this didn't make
a big splash in the news, it is important that the American public
understand that not only is individual privacy compromised, but
cybersecurity is weakened because privacy and security are linked
together. Privacy is characterized by a control of access to
information and security — by blocking the FCC's more
stringent privacy rules, Congress has weakened cybersecurity for
all Americans.
Security: ISPs have a bad track record on
security
Your ISP continually collects huge amounts of data such as search
results, places you visit on the internet (dates and times), how
often you visit and how long you are on a particular site. This is
your web browsing history. ISPs also record financial and personal
information or data via your transactions on the web through your
browser.
ISPs do not have a great track record of keeping information safe.
In fact, there have been a number of high-profile breaches such as
the AOL breach involving the data of more than 500 million users.
Recently, Comcast suffered a large breach of information involving
the data for almost 600 thousand users. The new rules would have
required ISPs to obtain opt-in to provide your information to third
parties. This would have reduced the now treasure trove of data
held by the ISPs, thereby reducing the exposure to a breach of
personal data.
In addition to obtaining credit card and other financial data,
hackers can pinpoint the browser history of each individual which
may be used as blackmail against that individual.
Insertion of adware and spyware weaken
security
A number of ISPs insert adware and spyware into their browsers,
which generates targeted advertising. For purposes of this article,
we will refer to adware and spyware, which are not very different
in terms of invasiveness or functionality, as just adware. ISPs
insert adware into browsers that analyze browsing history in order
to customize ads specifically for you.
The insertion of adware into a browser is a major threat to
cybersecurity because inserting new code into a webpage could break
the security of that page. The new FCC privacy rules would have
ended this practice. In basic terms of security, hackers take
advantage of this security weakness in the insertion process to
break into sites and applications that you use. It gives hackers an
easy way in.
A related security issue comes from ISPs installing adware into
devices, such as a mobile phone, which most of us purchase directly
from the service provider as part of a service agreement. In the
past, ISPs have justified the installation of adware on the basis
that it was to improve the wireless network service and
performance. After a lot of blowback, ISPs backed down on pushing
the adware application. ISPs will likely revert back to placing
adware on mobile devices since the Congressional repeal of the FCC
privacy rules effectively removes the FCC as a privacy watchdog.
And adware can record virtually all of your phone functions,
including systems logs apps usage and other communications. Any
adept hacker can utilize interception of the adware and obtain
sensitive information such as usernames and passwords without
having to do much in the way of sophisticated hacking. A hacker can
hijack your phone entirely and access almost anything including
your contacts, phone numbers and call history logs.
Conclusion
The Congressional repeal of the FCC privacy rules will have
security implications far beyond what was ever envisioned or
intended. Without these privacy rules, ISPs will continue with
impunity to sell user browser data and will likely resume dangerous
practices such as inserting adware into mobile devices. Since there
is no opt-in requirement, many consumers are unaware of these
issues. Most users simply ignore or click through agreements
without being aware of what is happening behind the scenes. The
negative security implications of the repeal of the FCC rules are
far reaching and have long-lasting implications for personal
privacy and national security. The end result is simple —
repealing the FCC's privacy rules will not just be a disaster
for Americans' privacy, it will be disaster for America's
cybersecurity, too.
Originally published by Law360
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.