The legal changes all stem from the FCC’s decision in February 2015 to reclassify home and mobile ISPs as common carriers. The reclassification had numerous effects: it allowed the FCC to impose net neutrality rules, but it also stripped the Federal Trade Commission of its authority over ISPs because the FTC’s charter from Congress prohibits the agency from regulating common carriers.
.. Before the February 2015 reclassification, ISPs could have been punished by the FTC for violating customers’ privacy. But following the FTC rules wasn’t too onerous—the FTC recommends opt-in consent before selling or sharing the most sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, the content of communications, financial and health information, information about children, and precise geo-location data. But ISPs could use an opt-out system for everything else, including Web browsing and app usage history.
.. The most prominent example of an ISP monetizing customers’ browsing history comes from AT&T. Starting in 2013, AT&T charged fiber Internet customers at least $29 extra each month unless they opted in to a system that scanned customers’ Internet traffic in order to deliver personalized ads.
Congress’s vote to eviscerate Internet privacy could give the FBI massive power
By adding a single short paragraph to an application for a court order through the Stored Communications Act (this wouldn’t even a require a search warrant), the FBI would be able to order your ISP to divulge every website you have contacted and every app you have used. In cases in which the FBI has obtained a search warrant, it could ask your ISP to reveal every single piece of content that it has a record of you having viewed — over the course of years.
Our government-access laws do not require the FBI to tell you about these requests, and the FBI almost always forces a gag order on ISPs, ensuring that you will never find out.
.. What the new law would do is give ISPs the incentive and the congressional and presidential seal of approval to construct the richest database of Web surfing and app-usage behavior the world has ever seen. This will be a honeypot attracting the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies like flies.