[rs23296008n1]

Privacy is a good one. I'd be fascinated to see how ISPs assert that publishing a news article is the same as selling/publishing all your search history or all your DNS history. And if it is your records why is it most peoples reaction is horror instead of happiness? Its because privacy has value. Which is why ISPs want to sell it.

Privacy isn't dead its just being sold as a commodity now. Without realistic permission and protection.

I'd go even further: the ISPs only have this data as a result of business dealing and such data is not expected to be shared. Sharing of my history is not necessary for providing me with internet. You want to allow accounting firms to share your financial records as well?

They are only doing it because there's profit. Not because its a necessary aspect for providing internet access. Sharing your accounting data is similar. Another example: what if you go for counselling with psychologist etc? Is that protected?

[Misdicorl]

Yes, HIPAA is a good analogue to compare against here. The Maine law is the inverse of HIPAA- it applies to ISPs (hospitals) rather than the data (medical records).

Of course, Maine does not have the power to institute HIPAA like regulations for internet data and so do this instead. Nonetheless, I think the telecoms broadly have a point here.

[mannykannot]

While the Maine law applies to ISPs, there can be little doubt that the underlying issue is the data.