As ISPs seek payments from Big Tech, Google criticizes “sender-pays” model

Enlarge / Google’s Matt Brittin, president of EMEA Business and Operations, speaks at the Web Summit on November 9, 2017, in Lisbon, Portugal. (credit: Getty Images | Horacio Villalobos ) Big Tech companies shouldn’t have to pay for Internet service providers’ network-upgrade costs, a Google executive said today amid a push in Europe to have […]

Ajit Pai gets message from his hometown ISP: Don’t hurt us small ISPs

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai speaks about improving rural connectivity during an Agriculture Department forum on April 18, 2018 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Alex Wong ) A broadband provider from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s hometown says one of his latest plans could prevent it from purchasing spectrum needed to bolster its […]

California approves privacy rules opposed by ISPs and tech companies

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | KrulUA) California is imposing a privacy law giving consumers more control over how their personal data is collected, used, and sold by corporations. Broadband providers, tech companies, and advertising groups had been fighting against a ballot initiative that contained consumer protections similar to what’s in the new law. The California […]

How to keep your ISP’s nose out of your browser history with encrypted DNS

Encrypting DNS traffic between your device and a “privacy-focused” provider can keep someone from spying on where your browser is pointed or using DNS attacks to send you somewhere else. (credit: Westend61 / Getty Images) The death of network neutrality and the loosening of regulations on how Internet providers handle customers’ network traffic have raised […]

Cloudflare makes it harder for ISPs to track your web history

If you’re privacy-minded, you probably aren’t thrilled that governments seem hell-bent on giving internet providers free rein over your browsing data. Cloudflare just gave you a tool to fight back, however. It launched 1.1.1.1, a free Domain Name System service (the technology that translates IP addresses to web domains) that promises to prevent ISPs from […]

Mayor quits FCC committee, says it favors ISPs over the public interest

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai with his oversized coffee mug in November 2017. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg) A broadband deployment advisory group organized by the Federal Communications Commission is trying to make it harder for cities and towns to build and operate their own Internet services. The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) was […]

Montana promises to sign contracts only with ISPs that honor net neutrality

(Reuters) — Montana will sign contracts only with internet service providers that honor “net neutrality” firms, Governor Steve Bullock said on Monday, the latest effort by a state to undermine a Federal Communications Commission order rolling back rules introduced in 2015. Bullock signed an executive order requiring state contract recipients to adhere to so-called net […]

Ajit Pai offers no data for latest claim that net neutrality hurt small ISPs

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | olm26250) With days to go before his repeal of net neutrality rules, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a press release about five small ISPs that he says were harmed by the rules. Pai “held a series of telephone calls with small Internet service providers across the country—from Oklahoma to Ohio, from […]

Democrat asks why FCC is hiding ISPs’ answers to net neutrality complaints

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Nicholas Rigg) With a vote to eliminate net neutrality rules scheduled for December 14, the Federal Communications Commission apparently still hasn’t released thousands of documents containing the responses ISPs made to net neutrality complaints. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in May […]