United States of America: FTC releases report on internet service providers' collection of personal data

On 21 October 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released A report on internet service providers' (ISPs) collection of personal data. The report investigated six ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Charter Communications Operating, Xfinity, T-Mobile and Google Fiber), finding that many of them have access to all of their users' internet traffic and real-time location data. Furthermore, many ISPs group consumers according to sensitive characteristics such as race and sexual orientation. Moreover, the report raised concerns on the privacy protections offered by the companies and noticed the difficulties for consumers to choose how their data is used and to access them.