Why Congress was right to act on internet privacy

For a generation, the internet’s success has relied on the commonsense principle of making things easy for consumers. From the smartphone to streaming video services, experience shows that consumers respond enthusiastically and in droves when given clear, uniform, workable and easily understood options.

Unfortunately, last fall, the Federal Communications Commission took a giant step back from this sound principle by imposing rules that make the internet an inconsistent and confusing place.

The issue involves online privacy and the federal requirements that govern how your online information is used by advertisers, websites and internet Service Providers (ISPs). For millions of Americans, this is an extremely important issue. That’s why so many commenters, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urged the FCC to approve a system in keeping with what we know is successful — namely, straightforward rules that are consistent across the entire Internet.

Unfortunately, the FCC utterly failed, which is why Congress was right to step in to correct its mistake. Rep. Darrell Issa’s vote to pull back the FCC’s flawed rules before they took effect was a strong pro-consumer step to reset this debate and give policymakers another chance to get the issue right.

The biggest problem with the FCC’s action is that the rules it crafted conflict with well-established online privacy requirements already implemented by the FTC. This is far more than a simple bureaucratic turf issue.