California Assemblymember Vows to Continue Fight for ISP Privacy Bill After Defeat

A California assemblymember promised to keep fighting for an ISP privacy bill to codify repealed FCC broadband rules, after his bill failed to pass the legislature Friday. "While I am disappointed that AB 375 was not taken up for a vote on the Senate floor, I remain committed to securing the right for California consumers to decide for themselves how their personal information can be used by their ISP," said bill author Ed Chau (D) in a statement Monday. The "common sense legislation" has "overwhelming bipartisan" public support, "and I will resume advancing this policy when we reconvene in a few months," he said. "In the dead of night, the California Legislature shelved legislation that would have protected every Internet user in the state from having their data collected and sold by ISPs without their permission," blogged the Electronic Frontier Foundation, accusing legislators of putting "profits of Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast over the privacy rights of their constituents." Others cheered. "Good riddance," blogged Doug Brake, senior telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The bill "might have been good politics, but it was bad policy," he wrote: "The poorly balanced federal rules were the product of an ill-advised power grab by the [FCC] -- both Congress and California were right to nix them." American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Roslyn Layton said the bill "probably" violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment free speech rights and Commerce Clause. "While states have some leeway to regulate commerce within their borders, Dormant Commerce Clause arguments have been used to challenge state-level internet regulation, showing that it discriminates against and unduly burdens commerce," she blogged. The "discriminatory" FCC rules target ISP efforts to tap advertising to support broadband, she wrote.