Telecom giants spent big to overturn privacy rules
Lobbying effort paid off when GOP scuttled Obama-era policy.
The telecom industry’s lobbying muscle pushed a consumer privacy measure to a swift death in Congress.
Re p u b l i c a n s s t r u c k d o wn Obama-era rules that would have imposed tight restrictions on what broadband companies such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast could do with their customers’ personal data. Digital-rights and consumer-advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation supported keeping the rules. But they were outmatched by telecom trade groups and lobbyists.
“These guys spend a fortune in D.C., they’re very plugged in on the Hill and this was clearly their priority,” said Craig Aaron, president of the consumer-advocacy group Free Press.
Former AT&T lobbyist Steve Billet, now on the faculty at George Washington University, said the telecom industry’s willingness to spend big on lobbying marks “the difference between them and the Electronic Frontier Foundation guys.”
The overall lobbying tab for telecom services and telephone companies exceeded $123 million in 2016, the research group Center for Responsive Politics says. That makes them among the top-spending industries in Washington. By contrast, some of the most active privacy and consumer groups on the other side spent just over $1 million, according to the nonpartisan group’s data.
The lobbying on both sides goes far beyond privacy. Other issues on the agenda included immigration, taxes, cable boxes and cybersecurity. But the disparity in the spending totals shows that when it comes to politics, industry can wield a lot of power with its pocketbook.
Telecom also has given more in political contributions to the House Republicans who voted to repeal the rules (about $138,000 on average over their careers) than to the 15 Republicans who voted to keep them ($77,000), according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In the Senate, the Republicans who voted to undo broadband privacy received more ($369,000) than the Democrats who voted to keep the rules ($329,000).
R e p . M a r s h a B l a c k b u r n , R-Tenn., who heads the House subcommittee on communications and technology, received more than $125,000 from telecom for the 2016 elections. The ranking Democrat, Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, got about $88,000.
In the Senate, Jeff Flake, R.-Ariz., chairman of a privacy and technology subcommittee, received $59,000, compared with nearly $27,000 for the ranking Democrat, Al Franken of Minnesota.
The repealed rules would have required companies to get customers’ permission before offering marketers a wealth of information about them, including health and financial details, geographic location and lists of websites visited and apps used.
Republicans and industry officials complained that the restrictions would have unfairly burdened internet providers.