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US Congress Votes To Shred ISP Privacy Rules (theregister.co.uk)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: The U.S. 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 232 votes to 184 along party lines, with one Democrat voting in favor and 14 not voting. 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. 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. With over 100 million households online in the United States, that means Congress has just given Big Cable an annual payday of between $35 billion and $70 billion.

11 of 547 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Republicans by ventsyv · · Score: 3, Informative

    Net Neutrality is next.

  2. Nothing new here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nothing new here... ISPs used to be able to do this, until an Obama-era regulation blocked it in October, 2016. This just returns us to the prior status. See here

    1. Re:Nothing new here by Headw1nd · · Score: 5, Informative
      No, this is incorrect. The key feature is that the ISPs used to be under FTC jurisdiction, who has rules in place covering user data. When the ISPs were declared common carriers, oversight of them was moved from the FTC to the FCC. Now the FTC has no jurisdiction over the ISPs, only the FCC does - and the FCC has essentially been banned from regulating them where user data is concerned.

      Common carrier rules could be abolished, and regulation of ISPs could be moved back to the FTC, but that would take time and have other negative consequences.

  3. Re:Ouch... by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Was there lube? I didn't feel any lube.

    This idea that all senators and reps are terrible - except mine has got to go. We are all continually being bent over. Vote all of them out.

    Ugh. Vote the Republicans out, dum dum! Can you not see that the Democrats voted against this abomination? This "one side is as bad as the other" bullshit is what got Trump elected in the first place.

    --
    Drill baby drill - on Mars
  4. Re:Ouch... by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Both sides have sold out. To slightly different bidders, but certainly not to you or I. While the dems may have -some- policies that I agree with more being that I am fairly liberal, that does not mean that the current crop are not bought and corrupt. No matter how they voted on this legislation.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  5. Re:This is absolutely sickening... by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Informative

    your Internet access might become cheaper.

    Pffthahahahaha, oh wait you were serious, let me laugh even harder. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  6. Re:Ouch... by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 4, Informative

    The drone thing again, eh? Obama's drone strikes killed 117 civilians over 8 years. Trump's drone strikes killed 200 civilians in one day this month. And if you're going to bring up killing kids, don't forget the 8 year-old American girl Trump killed.

    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
  7. Re:So... Can they sell past history? by clonehappy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I see you've bought the outrage of the day bait. Two minutes hate, if you will.

    Anyway, the ISPs could always sell your data. There has never been an enforced law or regulation that stopped them, like any internet company, from selling the data you willingly give them or which passes across their networks.

    Some regulations were put into place last year (but never enforced, mind you) that would have prevented ISPs from selling certain data about you. Note that other internet companies, like Facebook, Google, etc. would NOT have been affected by these regulations, this was only a restriction on ISPs.

    Congress has essentially decided that the playing field should be level between the Facebooks and Googles and the ISPs. Essentially, keeping the internet functioning the way it has been since its inception and letting the ISPs choose whether or not and what data they will and won't monetize.

    Long story short, no rules were "shredded". This is partisan clickbait nonsense being pushed by the media and sites with a political agenda, like Slashdot. So to answer your question, the date at which point they can choose to sell your data is whenever you signed up for internet service, because nothing has ever stopped them from doing this before, and you fell for the bait like most uninformed people.

  8. Re:Democrats by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Informative

    Ironically, the "House Freedom Caucus" supported this bill.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  9. Re:Opera Browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Assuming you can trust Opera, which I wouldn't.

  10. The Vote Numbers were different than listed by sasparillascott · · Score: 3, Informative

    The vote numbers the author listed are incorrect. It was 215 to 200. No democrats voted for it (like in the Senate) and a number of Republicans voted against it (just 7 more an it would have been killed). If the Senate vote had come after the House vote, it would have been killed for sure. Still want to know why it wasn't filibustered in the Senate. Here's the roll call for these numbers:

    http://clerk.house.gov/evs/201...