California AB 375 was a bill to restore the online privacy rights that the Republican Congress stripped away in March when they passed a bill that allowed your ISP to spy on you and sell data about your online activities.
AB 375 was enjoying enormous momentum in the Democrat-controlled California legislature, when a group of lawmakers — whom records show were heavily lobbied by Verizon, AT&T and Comcast — held a late-night session in which they killed the bill for 2017.
This is your periodic reminder that huge swathes of the Democratic party, especially at the highest echelons, are effectively Republicans who don’t hate gay people.
“It is extremely disappointing that the California legislature failed to restore broadband privacy rights for residents in this state in response to the Trump Administration and Congressional efforts to roll back consumer protection,” EFF Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon said. “Californians will continue to be denied the legal right to say no to their cable or telephone company using their personal data for enhancing already high profits. Perhaps the legislature needs to spend more time talking to the 80% of voters that support the goal of A.B. 375 and less time with Comcast, AT&T, and Google’s lobbyists in Sacramento.”
California Legislature Sells Out Our Data to ISPs
[Dave Maass/EFF]