In today’s Portland Press Herald, read about the Republican effort to repeal federal privacy regulations that prevent internet service providers from selling the comprehensive data they can collect about their customer’s every move, search, click, view, and geolocation. The repeal passed the Senate this week on party lines, with Maine Sen. Susan Collins voting for repeal, independent Sen. Angus King against.
The surprising thing was when I called two of Maine’s best-known homegrown internet service providers to get their take, they both condemned it in no uncertain terms. GWI’s Fletcher Kittredge had very strong language and a detailed take on just what was at stake that readers everywhere in the U.S. will want to read.
The repeal goes to the US House this coming week, where Maine Rep Chellie Pingree, D-ME1, is strongly against it, and Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-ME2, is, as is often the case, non-commital.
[Update: 3/31/17: The measure passed the House. Poliquin voted for it, Pingree against.]
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at Maine's Portland Press Herald, he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.