'Downright Creepy': Internet Entrepreneurs Weigh in on Repeal of Internet Privacy Rules

President Donald Trump this week signed the repeal of FCC rules that were intended to prevent customer information from being used by internet service providers without the user’s knowledge or permission. The rules, which were adopted under the Obama administration last fall, were set to go into effect later this year.

With the regulations, ISPs would have been required to get a customer's consent before collecting, sharing or selling information such as app usage history, geolocation, financial and health information, social security numbers, web browsing history and the content of communications. Leading up to last week’s vote on the legislation, a number of small internet providers sent an open letter urging the Senate to vote against the resolution.

“We really think it would be a violation of [our customers'] trust and an inappropriate abuse of our position if we engage in monetizing their activity or use of our service beyond the membership fees that we charge,” Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper tells Entrepreneur.

Jasper’s company is a mid-size telecommunications carrier and internet access provider based in California, and it is one of the businesses that signed the letter. One of his concerns around the new legislation is its provision that prevents the FCC from enacting similar privacy rules in the future.

“What that creates for carriers is a very clear signal that analyzing consumer behaviors on the internet across all the services and websites that they visit through the conduit that the carrier provides is OK,” Jasper says. “Carriers are now free to create business models that monetize that behavior, separately from and in addition to the subscription fees we charge customers for access to the internet. That to me is downright creepy.”