News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by ssalka on Friday May 31, 2019 @06:10PM (#20065478)
Isn't this covered by: > The bill prohibits a provider from refusing to serve a customer...if the customer...does not consent to the use, disclosure, sale or access [of their data]. ?
Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by altfredd on Friday May 31, 2019 @09:45PM (#20066607)
> The bill prohibits a provider

Nobody cares, what provider does. What matters is whether or not you sign a damn consent form.

Suppose, that there is a popular mobile App, written by Zhang Li Ltd. The App allows you to buy travel tickets, receive discounts in local stores and upload contents of your address book to it's servers. After a while you notice, that everyone uses it. Your local store no longer sells large amounts of grocery unless you make a reservation from The App. All train tickets must be booked by using The App. A bunch of local utilities stopped accepting payments unless you send them via The App. The thing is just so convenient!

One day you notice, that The App requires you to sign some "consent form" in order to use it's advanced features. A month later it threatens to delete your account if you don't "consent" (of course, it won't say so directly — "our ML algo detected, that you are Russian hacker! plz confirm your identity! account secuuuurity!" — that's how it will roll). The App is absolutely not connected to your ISP — it's authors just want to buy the data, that's all!

Reminds you of anything?

Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by duckMuppet on Sunday June 02, 2019 @11:36AM (#20076090)
You're not forced to use an app.

You can go on a web browser even a phone browser and do almost all the activities you can do in an app, and not deal with the T&C of the app once declined. Of course, no one does because they can't be inconvenienced. Again, you might believe that you can't check your Facebook/tender/whatsapp/Snapchat/etc, but that's generally untrue for most of them..

In most places due to govt regulation, you only have one or two ISP's serving a geographic area. So the T&C in this case have an actual impact, not some mythical and perceived injustice by "big tech".

Those app providers have the right to suck every last detail from their meatspace, down to what color socks they like on Tuesday and sell it to Hanes.

Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by voxic11 on Saturday June 01, 2019 @11:45AM (#20069725)
The bill also requires providers allow consent to be withdrawn at any time.
Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by kajmagnusmobile on Sunday June 02, 2019 @01:54PM (#20076939)
What app do you have in mind? I don't live in the US so maybe I haven't heard about it. I searched for "Zhang Li app" but found only game apps
Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by bb88 on Friday May 31, 2019 @07:19PM (#20065983)
Without reading the bill, not necessarily.

It's entirely feasible to have two classes of customers, right? One that agreed to the provision, and one that didn't. One that gets a 500GB data cap, and one that gets 150GB, say.

Just because you serve a customer doesn't mean you must serve them equally. Afterall, technically, they are serving the customer, right?

Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by talaketu on Friday May 31, 2019 @07:49PM (#20066124)
wrong. it should take <1 minute to follow the link and read that section.

> (2) Charge a customer a penalty or offer a customer a discount based on the customer's decision to provide or not provide consent under paragraph A.

Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by gpm on Friday May 31, 2019 @08:53PM (#20066385)
Providing extra bandwidth isn't necessarily a discount though, especially if you structure your offerings in a way that it's impossible to purchase the extra bandwidth.

It's against the spirit of the law of course, but maybe not the letter.

Re:Maine passes bill to prevent ISPs from selling browsing d... by cameronbrown on Friday May 31, 2019 @09:20PM (#20066504)
Extra bandwidth for the same amount of money is effectively a discount.