Current Events > ISPs sue Maine, claim Web-privacy law violates their free-speech rights

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/isps-sue-maine-claim-web-privacy-law-violates-their-free-speech-rights/

The broadband industry is suing Maine to stop a Web-browsing privacy law similar to the one killed by Congress and President Donald Trump in 2017. Industry groups claim the state law violates First Amendment protections on free speech and the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution.

The Maine law was signed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in June 2019 and is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2020. It requires ISPs to get customers' opt-in consent before using or sharing sensitive data. As Mills' announcement in June said, the state law "prohibits a provider of broadband Internet access service from using, disclosing, selling, or permitting access to customer personal information unless the customer expressly consents to that use, disclosure, sale or access. The legislation also prohibits a provider from refusing to serve a customer, charging a customer a penalty or offering a customer a discount if the customer does or does not consent to the use, disclosure, sale or access of their personal information."

Customer data protected by this law includes Web-browsing history, application-usage history, precise geolocation data, the content of customers' communications, IP addresses, device identifiers, financial and health information, and personal details used for billing.

Home Internet providers and wireless carriers don't want to seek customer permission before using Web-browsing histories and similar data for advertising or other purposes. On Friday, the four major lobby groups representing the cable, telco, and wireless industries sued the state in US District Court for the District of Maine, seeking an injunction that would prevent enforcement of the law.

The state law "imposes unprecedented and unduly burdensome restrictions on ISPs', and only ISPs', protected speech," while imposing no requirements on other companies that deliver services over the Internet, the groups wrote in their lawsuit. The plaintiffs are America's Communications Association, CTIA, NCTA, and USTelecom. They wrote:

Maine cannot discriminate against a subset of companies that collect and use consumer data by attempting to regulate just that subset and not others, especially given the absence of any legislative findings or other evidentiary support that would justify targeting ISPs alone. Maine's decision to impose unique burdens on ISPs' speechwhile ignoring the online and offline businesses that have and use the very same information and for the same and similar purposes as ISPsrepresents discrimination between similarly situated speakers that is impermissible under the First Amendment.

The law allegedly violates the First Amendment because it "limits ISPs from advertising or marketing non-communications-related services to their customers; and prohibits ISPs from offering price discounts, rewards in loyalty programs, or other cost-saving benefits in exchange for a customer's consent to use their personal information," the lawsuit claims.

"The Statute thus excessively burdens ISPs' beneficial, pro-consumer speech about a wide variety of subjects, with no offsetting privacy-protection benefits," the complaint continues. "At the same time, it imposes no restrictions at all on the use, disclosure, or sale of customer personal information, whether sensitive or not, by the many other entities in the Internet ecosystem or traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, thereby causing the Statute to diverge further from its stated purpose."

The trade groups also say Maine's law violates the US Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which gives federal law priority over state laws that conflict with US law. The Maine law "violates the Supremacy Clause because it allows consumers to dictate (by opting out or declining to opt in) when ISPs can use or disclose information that they must rely on to comply with federal law, rendering 'compliance with both' state and the foregoing federal laws 'impossible,'" the trade groups claimed.

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corporations shouldnt have the same rights meant for an individual

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If you are arguing against obtaining consent you are objectively a bad person/entity.
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solosnake posted...

corporations shouldnt have the same rights meant for an individual

If your babysitter was selling your personal info, you'd be angry then as well.

So, am I wrong or are they saying their right to invade our privacy is protected under freedom of speech..?

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Bio1590 posted...

If you are arguing against obtaining consent you are objectively a bad person/entity.

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Shablagoo posted...

So, am I wrong or are they saying their right to invade our privacy is protected under freedom of speech..?

That's exactly what it sounds like to me.

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Bio1590 posted...

If you are arguing against obtaining consent you are objectively a bad person/entity.

Questionmarktarius posted...

If your babysitter was selling your personal info, you'd be angry then as well.

I think you guys either didnt read the OP or have incredibly low reading comprehension

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I didn't think we'd find a worse representative for the virtues of free speech than literal Nazi propagandists who want to slash my throat, but capitalism is trying its best.

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No American has suffered more abhorrent, vehement, objective discrimination than the American multi-billion dollar monopoly conglomerate

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Huh. Let's go Maine.

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