Privacy law in the U.S. is a mess that only Congress can clean up, and the FCC's current rules only make it messier. Until last fall, the Federal Trade Commission protected consumer privacy online, and Democratic leadership in Congress appeared satisfied with the FTC’s approach. No matter what Congress does about the FCC’s privacy rules, there will still be a gap in protection for online privacy. Because Google is an ISP, the FCC has exclusive privacy jurisdiction over all of Google’s activities, including search and online advertising. With respect to privacy, Google has been effectively deregulated.

Source: Forbes March 28, 2017 18:47 UTC