To protect your family, would you lock the back door of your house but leave the front door unlocked? The Maine Legislature is about to do just that by passing an online privacy bill that only covers internet service providers like Bee Line, while leaving websites, social media, search engines and data brokers exempt. LD 946 will give consumers a false impression that they are protected online, while actually leaving their data and privacy very much at risk.
Like many who work in our industry, I worry that the Maine Legislature’s well-intentioned attempt to protect our privacy online could backfire. Lawmakers deserve credit for this initiative, an internet privacy bill is something that Maine needs to get right and see through. Unfortunately, LD 946 misses the mark, and it needs significant revision to provide Mainers with comprehensive privacy protections of their personal data irrespective of where they go on the Internet.
At Bee Line Cable, we are happy to play by the rules and we take great pride in providing a reliable broadband solution for many Maine residents. We serve customers all over central Maine, from Wilton to Millinocket. We care about our employees and we care about our customers. That’s why we want their personal information protected not only when they are using our internet service, but when they are engaged in any activity online.
It’s almost impossible to live in 2019 without the internet. It’s how we shop, bank, engage government, consume entertainment and communicate. History shows us that regulation usually lags behind technological advancement which yields a window for opportunists to exploit the well-intentioned. In this case, the opportunists are alarmingly as powerful as they are dangerous.
If small internet service providers like mine are expected – and willing – to provide our customers with stronger privacy protections, why aren’t larger companies being held to the same standards? The internet is a maze of vulnerable corners where consumer data is at risk for exploitation. Silicon Valley giants including social media platforms, search engines, and third-party data brokers have been the subjects of privacy infringement scandal after scandal. As profits gained from selling consumer data only continue to rise, these scandals show no sign of slowing down.
In spite of this, I remain optimistic that we can find relief from the privacy issues looming over consumers’ daily lives online. Our local political leaders here in Maine have shown courage to raise this issue and now it’s time to dig in and pass comprehensive privacy protections.
Mainers deserve complete online privacy protection laws that are simple, uniform and applicable across the entire internet ecosystem. While seeking such solutions it’s important for our legislators to avoid the temptation of a patchwork approach like LD 946 that will only create more complexity without adding any real consumer protections. This bill places the burden on consumers to navigate data and privacy use agreements to try and understand where they are protected – a heavy and unfair responsibility.
The best solution still calls for a single national framework that enforces rules across the entire internet ecosystem to ensure true data protection for consumers.
LD 946 has made it out of committee and is now heading to the Senate chamber for consideration and diverse ranks of Mainers are actively speaking up and asking lawmakers to go back to the drawing board. From the Maine Chamber of Commerce protesting the effects of the bill on small businesses to everyday Mainers fighting for transparency, the voice for online privacy is getting louder.
Maine must not let tech giants play by their own privacy rules. Stand up and contact your state senator and Governor Mills and tell them to vote no on LD 946. Mainers can do better than watered-down privacy legislation.
Paul Hannigan
President, Bee Line Cable
Maine can’t pass laws that affect companies that are not subject to Maine legislation. Beeline however, IS subject to Maine legislation, so what do you do? You pass feel good legislation that doesn’t actually do anything, so they can take credit for doing something, when in reality they didn’t do anything. But the people who voted for the idiots will see as a win and will cast their vote for them again.
The terminology is a little confusing. Bee Line is an internet provider, giving a customer (like me) access to the entire web. You do a pretty good job, even though you’re the only game in town. In the past I tried three versions of internet-by-satellite and, well, never again. When I click my mouse here at home, I know its first stop is Bee Line.
Unless you mean something different, the term tech giant today refers to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These guys provide internet content, not access. In my experience, their problems are not so much about privacy, although that’s nearly all we hear about, but very much about political bias, which we never hear about unless we’re on the receiving side.
Anyhow, all of them get to me through Bee Line, the next to last stop. What would you have the several giants do that the one of you can’t do more efficiently?