Wednesday, March 29th 2017
US House of Representatives Confirms Senate's Privacy Stance on ISPs
Only yesterday, the United States' House of Representatives carried the US Senate's joint resolution to eliminate broadband privacy rules. These rules, which are now seemingly on their way to political oblivion, would have required ISPs to get consumers' explicit consent before selling or sharing Web browsing data and other private information with advertisers and other companies. Much like last week's Senate joint resolution, the House's voting fell mainly along partisan lines (215 for, 205 against, with 15 Republican and 190 Democratic representatives voting against the repeal) to scrap the proposed FCC rules.
President Trump's desk (and the President himself) are now all that stand before the ISP's ability to collect geo-location data, financial and health information, children's information, Social Security numbers, Web browsing history, app usage history, and the content of communications - information that gives the most unthinkable leeway in understanding your daily habits. However, President Trump's administration have issued a statement whereas they "strongly support House passage of S.J.Res. 34, which would nullify the Federal Communications Commission's final rule titled "Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunication Services".The Electronic Frontier Foundation has already issued a statement to today's vote with a statement that "If the bill is signed into law, companies like Cox, Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, and Verizon will have free rein to hijack your searches, sell your data, and hammer you with unwanted advertisements. Worst yet, consumers will now have to pay a privacy tax by relying on VPNs to safeguard their information."
Ajit Pai, the current FCC Chairman, is a staunch supporter of rolling back the rules, claiming that "the FCC will work with the FTC to ensure that consumers' online privacy is protected through a consistent and comprehensive framework."
Those against the FCC ruling argue that it would have placed an unfair burden on ISPs while leaving sites like Google and Facebook free to collect and sell user data. What these supporters don't seem to consider, however, is how different the nature of Facebook or Google is compared to an ISP: you post what you want, when you want, if you want, and you even only use the service and inform it of your usage habits if you choose to do so. You can also choose to make your searches on Bing, or any other search engine. However, you can never pull the plug on your ISP's data collection of your habits and doings on the Internet. And with some customers only having access to one or two ISPs at any given time will also stand in the way of competition through reinforced privacy protection. If Comcast is the only ISP in your area, well, you can always not sign for the service if you don't want your information to be collected. Though you will end up sans internet access.
Unless, of course, you invest on a paid VPN - that is, if you don't already.
President Trump's desk (and the President himself) are now all that stand before the ISP's ability to collect geo-location data, financial and health information, children's information, Social Security numbers, Web browsing history, app usage history, and the content of communications - information that gives the most unthinkable leeway in understanding your daily habits. However, President Trump's administration have issued a statement whereas they "strongly support House passage of S.J.Res. 34, which would nullify the Federal Communications Commission's final rule titled "Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunication Services".The Electronic Frontier Foundation has already issued a statement to today's vote with a statement that "If the bill is signed into law, companies like Cox, Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, and Verizon will have free rein to hijack your searches, sell your data, and hammer you with unwanted advertisements. Worst yet, consumers will now have to pay a privacy tax by relying on VPNs to safeguard their information."
Ajit Pai, the current FCC Chairman, is a staunch supporter of rolling back the rules, claiming that "the FCC will work with the FTC to ensure that consumers' online privacy is protected through a consistent and comprehensive framework."
Those against the FCC ruling argue that it would have placed an unfair burden on ISPs while leaving sites like Google and Facebook free to collect and sell user data. What these supporters don't seem to consider, however, is how different the nature of Facebook or Google is compared to an ISP: you post what you want, when you want, if you want, and you even only use the service and inform it of your usage habits if you choose to do so. You can also choose to make your searches on Bing, or any other search engine. However, you can never pull the plug on your ISP's data collection of your habits and doings on the Internet. And with some customers only having access to one or two ISPs at any given time will also stand in the way of competition through reinforced privacy protection. If Comcast is the only ISP in your area, well, you can always not sign for the service if you don't want your information to be collected. Though you will end up sans internet access.
Unless, of course, you invest on a paid VPN - that is, if you don't already.