Aug 9, 2016

Broadband Internet Should be a Utility, Says Chris Hoofnagle

From the Los Angeles Times

Want cheaper Internet access? Hand over your privacy

By David Lazarus

It seems a simple enough proposition: Would you agree to receive marketing pitches in return for a discount on your high-speed Internet service?

Telecom heavyweight Comcast made just such a case last week in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The company defended what it called “a bargained-for exchange of information for service,” which it said “is a perfectly acceptable and widely used model throughout the U.S. economy.”...

But privacy advocates are starting to worry about a society of privacy haves and have-nots....

Chris Hoofnagle, an Internet law professor at UC Berkeley [School of Information], said Comcast’s filing last week should serve as a reminder that the broadband Internet industry is different. These companies aren’t selling a luxury. They’re selling a necessity.

“What Comcast is saying is somewhat akin to the water authority offering a discount for less purified water,” Hoofnagle said. “It is time to conceive of broadband as a utility, one that needs to satisfy basic standards for quality, which include freedom from unwarranted surveillance.”...

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Last updated: October 4, 2016