EDITORIAL: GOP deliberately hid its repeal of Americans’ privacy, what’s next?

June 02--Most members of Congress seem to think using Twitter or having a Facebook page makes them experts on technology. But how many really have a tech background?

You can count them on one hand.

This makes it all the more frightening that congressional Republicans followed a deliberate strategy of obfuscation when they wiped out Americans' privacy protections while the nation was distracted by the House vote to repeal Obamacare.

The report in Tuesday's Washington Post was chilling for anyone who cares about who sees their personal data, let alone for the future of internet commerce and the technology industry that drives the U.S. economy.

The bill allowing Internet providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to sell customers' browsing histories without their consent passed Congress on a straight party vote, and President Trump signed it into law in April. If you thought it came out of nowhere, you were almost right. It came out of a back room.

Tech companies and consumers need to wake up.

A parallel threat to Americans' ability to trust internet commerce and communication looms in the pending congressional vote on net neutrality: the principle that people and businesses should have equal access to the internet. It's net neutrality that has allowed imaginative entrepreneurs' entry to internet commerce. End neutrality, and innovation likely goes with it.

This strategy of obscuring votes that will harm the public isn't speculation. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich boasts about it: "Trump and Republicans are doing so many different things on parallel tracks, the news media and activists can't follow it all," he said. "This is by design."

Consumers' outrage since the privacy vote is giving some Republicans pause. For example, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has offered a bill requiring not only Internet Service Providers but also websites such as Facebook and Google to get users' permission before sharing their personal information. That would help level the playing field for businesses profiting from data sales.

But Blackburn also would take policing Internet privacy away from the Federal Communications Commission and give it to the Federal Trade Commission, which has much weaker regulatory power. Restoring privacy rights but gutting enforcement would be no net gain for consumers.

Blackburn is no consumer advocate. She has accepted nearly $700,000 in campaign contributions from telecom companies, denies climate change and rejects the theory of evolution. She's the chair of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee? These are the kinds of leaders deciding technology issues without consulting technology experts, let alone consumers.

The deliberate sneak attack on consumer privacy was a defeat for consumer rights and technology innovation. Tech companies and consumer groups have to mobilize for this next threat to net neutrality.

Surely red state constituents value their privacy, too. Maybe even moreso.

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