Posted on Mar 29, 2017 by Caleb Chen

Minnesota Senate votes 58-9 to pass Internet privacy protections in response to repeal of FCC privacy rules


internet privacy rights in minnesota

In stark contrast to Congress’s recent vote against the Internet privacy rights of American constituents, Minnesota’s state Senators have voted to add broadband privacy protections at the state level. The protections were added in an amendment to S.F. No. 1937, the Minnesota economic development budget bill, by Minnesota State Sen. Latz. This Internet privacy amendment was introduced as a direct response to the Tuesday 215-205 vote by the House of Representatives for S.J.Res. 34. FCC Internet privacy rules would have come into effect at the end of 2016 and would have forced Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms to get permission before selling your private internet history or app data usage, which they also don’t consider sensitive information. These telecoms and ISPs have long been hard at work to dismantle Internet privacy with their words and money – but they have now been stopped in one more state.

In direct response to Congress, Minnesota passes Internet privacy protections

Once this bill passes in the Minnesota House and is signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton, ISPs will be required to obtain “express written approval from the customer” before collecting customer information from their users. Furthermore, it forbids these ISPs and telecoms from refusing to provide service to someone that refuses to approve the collection of their personal data; which, if the online reaction to the repeal of FCC privacy rules is any show of, is a lot of people. The full text of the amendment to S.F. No. 1937 is:

Sec. 17. [237.417] PERSONAL INFORMATION; PROHIBITION.
No telecommunications or internet service provider that has entered into a franchise agreement, right-of-way agreement, or other contract with the state of Minnesota or a political subdivision, or that uses facilities that are subject to such agreements, even if it is not a party to the agreement, may collect personal information from a customer resulting from the customer’s use of the telecommunications or internet service provider without express written approval from the customer. No such telecommunication or internet service provider shall refuse to provide its services to a customer on the grounds that the customer has not approved collection of the customer’s personal information. EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Minnesota State Sen. Limmer, a Republican, said to Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

“We should be outraged at the invasion that’s being allowed on our most intimate means of communication.”

Private Internet Access would like to commend the Minnesota politicians that stood up for what their constituents truly care about. Now that S.J.Res. 34 has passed, fighting for Internet privacy is increasingly happening at the state level instead. As Conor Dougherty wrote in The New York Times earlier this week: Push for Internet Privacy Rules Moves to Statehouses.

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About Caleb Chen

Caleb Chen is a digital currency and privacy advocate who believes we must #KeepOurNetFree, preferably through decentralization. Caleb holds a Master's in Digital Currency from the University of Nicosia as well as a Bachelor's from the University of Virginia. He feels that the world is moving towards a better tomorrow, bit by bit by Bitcoin.
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  • giles_wells

    “Furthermore, it forbids these ISPs and telecoms from refusing to provide service to someone that refuses to approve the collection of their personal data”

    This to me means that it still leaves the door open to charge those customers more for a non-tracked ISP hookup.

    • Nsanemindz

      Kind of what AT&T does with their internet GB services. When it was first released, in order to receive promotional pricing you had to sign an agreement saying they can give out your information to marketing agencies and whoever else.

    • Lorde Aldrin Grande

      catfish and carp?

  • my eyes are hungry

    ISPs will still do it and just hope to not get caught. Then if they do, deny knowledge of it, claim it was improper coding on their part and then pay a small fine (less than the profits that he got from doing it)

    • pan da

      Yes. I think what the actual law is has very little bearing on how they will operate outside of discretion.

  • Soraya Xel

    Love how this is carefully written to avoid actually protecting people’s privacy: It doesn’t restrict Google or Facebook’s behaviors at all.

    • Gilbert Maldonado

      You don’t NEED to use facebook or google. But in this day you NEED internet access and most people lack any real option when it comes to broadband. Let that sink in.

      • Soraya Xel

        This is mostly a false comparison. Google is nearly inescapable. Google Analytics is embedded in almost every website and there is no way to escape it. I have three broadband ISP options to choose from, but escaping Google tracking is only possible by leaving the Internet.

        Unfortunately, this laws’ supporters are likely heavily funded by Google, and looking forward to the elimination of competitors.

        • Tim Ramos

          Use the hidden wiki

        • sl3xx

          You know how to escape it? You just don’t load the js. There are chrome and firefox extensions that will do this for you.

        • Ralazar

          If the websites that you go to are using Google Analytics, then that data belongs to the websites, not to Google. You think Google is somehow putting their Analytics onto other people’s websites? The website developers are doing it so that they can learn about who goes onto their site.

          Similar to Facebook’s “Like” button, but that’s somewhat of a Trojan horse because the data that it collects is actually Facebook’s.

          • Soraya Xel

            Data collected by Google Analytics does, in fact, go to Google. And is Google’s data.

        • jesh462

          I’ll hold your hand.
          https://noscript.net/

  • Jan Vickery Lillemo

    I don’t mean to be dumb, but how will the Internet know we’re in Minnesota so they leave our private information alone? Or is it tied to our internet service providers?

    • Kelsey Werner

      Your connection to the internet has a address just like your home does (its called an IP address!), and as long as you aren’t using a vpn to mask your IP adress or alter it in some manner your connection will know from where it originates.

    • Its the ISP that collects the information.

  • Flyingchipmunk

    Too bad the Federal Bill probably preempts all State rules and makes this just a feel good vote. I’ll be happy, and happy to eat my words, if this isn’t the case though.