Why Title II Net Neutrality Directly Conflicts with Consumer Privacy

[Commentary] At best the notions of network neutrality and consumer privacy are somewhat in tension. At worst, they are in opposition, and harm consumer privacy as happened when the Wheeler-Federal Communications Commission subordinated the goal of what’s best for consumer privacy to the conflicting and overriding goal of what was best for imposing maximal, Title II net neutrality.

The FCC forced a monopoly telephone privacy approach, that assumes that one entity (an ISP) is closed and can totally control the potential dissemination of network information that a consumer chooses to be private, when the FCC knows full well that it can’t possibly ensure that that information be kept private overall, because of the way an “open” and “neutral” Internet works today. The Wheeler-FCC broadband privacy order deserved to be rescinded by Congress because it was not a fairly-represented, legitimate privacy regulation. The Wheeler-FCC knew it could not ensure that the information that a consumer requested be kept private, could be kept private in the way a consumer expected.

[Cleland is president of Precursor LLC and chairman of NetCompetition, a pro-competition e-forum supported by broadband interests.]