The US House of Representatives has just approved a "congressional disapproval" vote of privacy rules, which gives your ISP the right to sell your internet history to the highest bidder.

The measure passed by 215 votes to 205.

This follows the same vote in the Senate last week. Just prior to the vote, a White House spokesman said the president supported the bill, meaning that the decision will soon become law.

This approval means that whoever you pay to provide you with internet access – Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, etc – will be able to sell everything they know about your use of the internet to third parties without requiring your approval and without even informing you.

Your ISP already knows quite a lot about you: your name and address, quite possibly your age, and a host of other personally identifiable information such as your social security number. That's on the customer information side. On the service side, they know which websites you visit, when, and how often.

That information can be used to build a very detailed picture of who you are: what your political and sexual leanings are; whether you have kids; when you are at home; whether you have any medical conditions; and so on – a thousand different data points that, if they have sufficient value to companies willing to pay for them, will soon be traded without your knowledge.

As one high-profile venture capitalist recently discovered, your previous search history can also impact what result you see in future. Although in his case, he probably wishes he hadn't publicly criticized Apple on Twitter for giving him the details of a porn actress at the top of his search results.

The precise user profiles that can be built using this data are worth their weight in gold to advertisers, and explains why Google and Facebook are two of the world's largest companies despite only being a search facility and an online noticeboard.

Anytone thinking the Republicans, especially the current administration, are looking out for the best interests of the common guy are not looking close enough.

THAT...

They ALL want power - and by golly they're gonna GET IT...

The White House said on Tuesday that the Trump administration strongly supports a bill to repeal regulations requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than websites like Alphabet's Google or Facebook.

You are a subversive. If the Republicans did it, it's good.

Whatever the Democrats do is bad.

You are hereby sentenced to two weeks of Limbaugh instruction, after which you will be reevaluated.





😀

Money talks...

Hopefully this dies in the Senate.

Senate passed a resolution approving of the repeal last week.

So here is a list of the lawmakers who voted to betray you, and how much money they received from the telecom industry in their most recent election cycle.

Money talks...

Hopefully this dies in the Senate.

The websites you visit already sell that info. So it would do nothing but add expense to the providers.

That could drain the swamp.. but since it's 100% Republicans, that's not good.

https://www.gofundme.com/searchinternethistory

If it is the Republicans that voted for this, then, yes, that is good. Are you loyal to the idea of freedom and privacy and Constitution? Or to the Republican Party and lockstep follow-the-leader?

sounds like the latter.

Really, the website I visit to read that story knows the name of my online trading companies, the names of my credit card companies, the names of my banks, the names of my retirement account companies?

Do tell how that site gets that.

They are repealing a Obama rule ensuring that your online data was safe. Now, I detested Obama as much as everybody.. but wtf?

ISP's will now be allowed to capture all internet traffic to and from your house and sell it off if they care to. Emails? Yep. Texts if your phone hooks up to WiFi? Yep. Everything you buy on Amazon? Yep. Everything you post here? Oh yeah.

List of all banks, credit card companies, online stock trading companies, retirement accounts, etc? Yep. Hope you've never been a victim of identity theft, because combine these and your SSN and you might be living your retirement years in your kid's basement.

Passed purely along party lines, every Republican voting to remove your online privacy rights, every Democrat voting to protect them.

I'm at a loss here. I can't begin to fathom why anybody would have thought this was a good idea.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/28/congress_approves_sale_of_internet_histories/

More to it than that.
1. Obama's rule is not now in force. - Nothing changes.
2. The argument is that the Obama rule exempts large non-ISP entities - Google, for instance, who visited the Obama WH 427 times, and Facebook.

Umm.. No. That's different. You make a specific effort to go use google or Facebook. You can easily block them sniffing your activity at other sites by using privacy/incognito mode or various plugins to browsers to prevent cookie sharing. Don't like Google, use DuckDuckGo which never tracks users.

I use incognito mode EVERY time I hit a financial site. Google and Facebook have no idea where I do any financial transactions.

But.. You can't block an ISP. Incognito mode or browser plugins can't help. Many people can't switch to another ISP to get away from intrusion, and even if you do, the new one can do the same thing. The closest thing to be protected under this is Tor, which was created to give internet access to people in repressive regimes, but is mostly used by criminals including child pornographers in the US.

Allowing ISPs to sell your data is like allowing your phone company to record your phone calls and sell them to advertisers.

You ignored the first point. The repeal means nothing changes. I didn't say that I support it, just that there is more to it than the lame stream media is portraying.

Today's younger generation can't stand the thought of privacy.

But.. You can't block an ISP. Incognito mode or browser plugins can't help. Many people can't switch to another ISP to get away from intrusion, and even if you do, the new one can do the same thing. The closest thing to be protected under this is Tor, which was created to give internet access to people in repressive regimes, but is mostly used by criminals including child pornographers in the US.

Allowing ISPs to sell your data is like allowing your phone company to record your phone calls and sell them to advertisers.

If it is the Republicans that voted for this, then, yes, that is good. Are you loyal to the idea of freedom and privacy and Constitution? Or to the Republican Party and lockstep follow-the-leader?

sounds like the latter.

No, it does mean something has been changed. Your information is now salable by your ISP. What don't you get?

Atta Boy, Donald. I've already got those "would you like to spend a night w/Jenny" emails coming to me. No, I've never subscribed to any demented stuff like that. Now you tell me their going to be able to take over my life. The Democrats do step in a pile from time to time but when The Republicans step in a pile...it's a big one. Enjoy you're rich, lying president. powdr

President Trump can veto it!

If you buy stuff with credit cards, there's a trail of data.

If you use a smart phone, you're leaving a trail.

If you use a 'loyalty' card at whatever stores you shop at, there's data that can be mined. (It's not magic that the loyalty coupons you get periodically for shopping at certain stores are closely aligned with your shopping preferences...and that data can be passed along.)

My understanding is that this legislation simply levels the playing field somewhat.