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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.
Is there anything they won't rape for money?
...and is the interests of nobody but a few of the obscenely wealthy. The Republican party no longer even pretends to give a shit about the poor and middle class, and yet we keep giving them power. It has to end.
Or is there a date at which point than can begin collecting your soul (I mean data) and selling it?
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.
Silence is a state of mime.
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
If your records are for sale to anybody, no warrants will be required for any government agency to purchase them.
For all their empty talk of "freedom", the Republican party sure seems to love authoritarian rule.
...how many more Mbps can I get? Hey, Comcast, are you listening? The quicker I surf, the more info you get, so how about ramping up those speeds.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
If ever a Hitler gains power, it will make it easy to round up the Jews (or whoever the next lot of scapegoats are). Thr census will also become irrelevant. Simply gain access to this data.
Only Republicans would rape the Internet. And they got a orangutan in office to rubber stamp it.
Teh internets watch you.
is now basically a requirement in America.
You will be better off in the end. Protect yourself from your ISP and get the added bonus of protection from the RIAA/MPAA etc as well. Like a two for one deal.
Who follows the rules now? How many of you actually have read the TOS for your ISP? It's privacy policy?
Unless you know what's going on to start with and have taken extreme measures to avoid it, you are already being tracked every which way from Sunday. So your ISP now can packet sniff your traffic? Big woop...
If you care to keep your ISP in the dark, best you arrange to have a VPN connection 100% of the time for all your traffic. But I would expect that you are constantly ditching your browser cookies, never log in to anything, don't use E-mail or any protocol that is unencrypted now...
The ONLY compliant anybody has here is that your ISP keeping these records might make it easier for law enforcement to get this information. Even so, that will take a warrant, unless you ISP just gives up any information they have to law enforcement when they ask, even if they don't say please...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Can you back that up with some examples?
What is this 'regulation' you speak of? (and how long is that gonna last...)
You can do that but are you then safe from Microsoft or Apple taking whatever they want from your computer and phoning it home?
No. And if you trust Microsoft to stop spying when you make use of the user-facing privacy options, you are indeed a trusting person.
What the ISP knows about you is much less than what Microsoft knows about you.
Oh, that's right, they can't. Especially as I never use facebook, and don't allow their javascript to execute.
How can my ISP see all my web traffic? Pretty easily, if it's not encrypted, which is one reason why google is pushing https everywhere, and there's a lot of astroturfing here and elsewhere about why this is a bad thing.
We had a Republican president when the Patriot act was passed to take away all our rights. But to be fair, the Democrats certainly deserve a fair share of the blame. It's not just one party doing it.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
As Slashdot's resident and probably only Opera Browser user, I'd just like to remind ya'll that the browser has built-in out of the box support for VPN access. There is no complicated or confusing setups. It just works. And remember, Opera Browser is also based on Chrome/Chromium nowadays, so the rendering engine and interface is essentially the same as Chrome otherwise. Additionally, Ad-block is also built in, instead of requiring ad-ons.
Details: http://www.opera.com/computer/...
From what I understand the privacy rules set forth by the FCC under president Obama haven't gone into effect yet. So I'm not sure what's changed from what we have today. Granted, it's a crap thing to do, but ISP's have had the ability to do this for as long as they've existed as far as I know.
Hasn't Google and Facebook been monetizing their users in a similar way? And would have been able to continue to do so even if the privacy rules were left in place? If my ISP is going to make money off of me, I should at least get a discount on my monthly bill though. That's the biggest difference I can see. I actually pay my ISP, where I use Google for free.
Yes, Facebook already sees your other Webtraffic, because it has the ad networks bugged to track you. Google does. All of them do.
You aren't anonymous unless you're on Tor and using Incognito Mode all the time. The internet works by sharing who you are with everyone interested. Or did you think that the price on Amazon is what everyone sees?
If you don't want the government tracking you, go offgrid. Though I hear that is illegal in some places.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
From the headline of an article that came up in a Google Search, which I will not link to nor did I click:
"House Votes Tuesday to Restore Consistent Online Privacy Regulation"
Fuck tolerance, those people just need to be driven off the goddamn internet. It's too good for them to ruin.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Bush put in Patriot, Obama campaigned on repealing it, and made it actually worse. Spying on Americans is now okay, because even though we've caught them red handed a number of different times, nobody is trying to stop them because "TERRORISTS!!!!!" .
If you vote for either of the two major parties, I hope you like your tyranny, for there is almost no functional difference on the major issues.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Even when the web traffic is encrypted (i.e. "https") your ISP can still see your DNS traffic. As soon as PornHub changes their site layout to use "midgets.pornhub.com", your ISP can sell your specific interests to the highest bidder.
Did they write in any exemptions for themselves? I'm sure if we just release every congress-critter's search history, they'll have a change of heart.
Have had an impure thought? Your ISP will know!
True, but much more likely people will be flagged on suspicion of copyright violations. They could perhaps sell impure thoughts to extortionists, if they can find some who will pay, but ISP's can make more money selling out your efforts to download that unlicensed copy of that Disney movie. Some nice arrangement between the MPAA, the RIAA, and a consortium of ISP's willingly providing their data about you for the noble cause of fighting piracy (the evil-looking eagle says "Piracy is not a Victimless Crime").
Search torrent sites much? There'll be a red flag for that.
Could have left it well enough alone, they could have, but nope they just had to take bold action for the likes of Comcast and Verizon.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
Some people might be offended when you tell them to suck it.
Trump voters do tend to be snowflakes that way. They bitch and moan about political correctness, but heaven forbid someone insult them or their dear leader, lest their poor little feelings get hurt.
You can throw up speedbumps to what they can see, and limit the sharing quite a bit. But you can't do that with your ISP, and in a lot of places you have very little choice.
Yeah, actually, I do. Because they tried price discrimination once, and it blew up on them badly. Because people share information as well. Now, if you have evidence they are managing to do this more subtly now, I'd certainly be interested in seeing it.
I see this all-or-nothing bullshit all the time. Is this some sort of trollish astroturf campaign? It certainly doesn't mirror real life.
The cynic in me says they work for the NSA or ISPs when they do that. (Sure, https can't be cached, requires more CPU, etc. but the technical problems seem more and more like the 640K of RAM issue.)
Only Republicans would rape the Internet. And they got a orangutan in office to rubber stamp it.
Yes the Republicans have been pushing for this since SOPA, and it was protested about and struck down so they tried renaming it CISPA and that got struck down and now they are pulling this crap. It is not so much about the president but the fact we have Republicans in the house and senate who think they have a blank check to do whatever they want.. I expect they are going to try to make abortion illegal and pull all planned parenthood funding, I imagine they are going to pull all support for climate change research and put as much money into coal and oil drilling and digging and I know for a fact they are going to try to get us embroiled in more wars so that if there is a Democratic resurgence they will be dealing with the fall out from that war so hard that they will not be able to accomplish anything in the 4 or 8 years they have, thereby leaving an open for another republican to get in on the idea that the Democrat guy got nothing done. Same old Republican crap , different day! I have said it before, This is what you get when you vote Republicans into office. Get used to it kids! I learned this a long long time ago.
How can my ISP see all my web traffic? Pretty easily, if it's not encrypted, which is one reason why google [sic] is pushing https everywhere...
Got to hide your massive search history for Japanese Tentacle Porn...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
"Doesn't affect me directly, screw everyone else!"
Love the attitude.
How does Facebook and Google see that I binge-play Elder Scrolls Online an entire night? How does my ISP see it?
Do you see the difference? Facebook and Google may see MOST of what you do IN WEB BROWSERS, your ISP will see everything, without question, that passes through your modem.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
We had a Republican president when the Patriot act was passed to take away all our rights. But to be fair, the Democrats certainly deserve a fair share of the blame. It's not just one party doing it.
However, keep in mind that in reality, President Obama never met an invasive secret domestic spying program he didn't like. As well, he was exceptionally vicious in pursuing heavy criminal penalties for whistle blowers. I find it difficult to believe he was seriously interested in repealing the Patriot Act, except for "public relations" with his constituency of Democrats like me.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Whether Facebook, with 2.8 billion users, should be somehow regulated is a different question than whether the ISP should be able to listen in on my internet traffic.
They don't (didn't?) let the phone company listen in; why is the ISP different?
I assume you're referring to all the anti-terrorism Snowden shit, that started under W. but continued under Obama (and six years of GOP-controlled Congress). And damn-well ain't gonna let up any under Trump.
But let's put it in context. The GOP, after years of screaming and gnashing of teeth, when the chips were finally down could NOT get enough of their own shit together to repeal Obamacare, that thing they say they hate more than anything in the whole world. But, just a few days later, these same guys managed to put their differences aside to crush a tiny consumer-protection rule for Internet users.
That's who we're dealing with here, people. Still insist that Dems are the worst? Ancient history, get over it. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, and shit it's only been 12 weeks!
but on the other hand, doesn't Ivanka's clothing line just look spanky!
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
Right. If you don't like it, just sign a contract with another ISP. Oh wait! There is no other ISP!.
Yes, people should be left to do what they want, so long as we know exactly what they're doing at all times. Watch which websites you visti - it's going into your file.
You are a fool if you think the Republicans are some freedom-loving outfit. The Democrats certainly have their issues as well, but this is really beyond the pale...
So we spend years begging for a bone. We finally get it only to have it prized from our jaws moments after tasting its meaty goodness. Outraged? Oh hell yes we're outraged.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Lets start with Government, unless you're a "frothing at the mouth" Libertarian like me (and from your Post history here, you're not "frothing), you're misunderstanding the use of Hyperbole. Which seems to be all the rage. Hence the over the top REAL LIFE examples or late.
Seems like every day I hear another liberal talking about how RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTIONS and another Conservative talking about how TERRORISTS KILLED EVERYONE.
What nobody seems to be talking about is how Americans are being spied upon by the dark shadow government and being outed when politically expedient. We all should be terrified by that knowledge.
And once you realize the Government is spying on you, ATT/Verizon spying makes even more sense. Who do you think BigTelCo is spying for?
Again we've already lost the war, this is just mop up stuff to tie any loose ends that might have slipped through. Nothing to see here ... move along.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Trump's not perfect, but at least he rejected both parties.
You don't actually believe that, right?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That's an insult to orangutans. They are gentle peaceful and intelligent creatures.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
This is fsking ridiculous, and only a Trump-supporter type person would put forth such a warped, bullshit comment.
Democrats do not, in any way shape or form, want to keep people from negative consequences.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Yeah, they kinda do. They own the House, Senate & Presidency. They mostly own the Supreme Court and will after Gourch gets appointed (Dems don't have the votes to stop it and the Repubs can change the filibuster rules with their votes).
Face it, we handed them a blank check when we elected Trump. They don't always have the balls to cash it (their first round of billionaire tax cuts in the guise of Health Care failed) but they've got it. In two years time we've got a chance to revoke that check in the mid-terms. But I'm guessing the Dems will make us feel bad (nobody likes paying taxes) and you'll let it roll...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
You said,
The summary said,
Yes, it's one party doing it. First they changed the rules via the FCC, and now they've made it permanent. It's the very definition of "one party doing it".
You are welcome on my lawn.
don't forget that that Ajit Pai was put on the commission by Obama.
Yes, but details, son! Commissions like the FCC are required to have members from both parties. while the chair position may be chosen by the President. Obama installed Pai because he had to. Wikipedia: "He was initially nominated for a Republican Party position on the commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term."
He's a grandstanding tool (and former lawyer for Verizon through his old firm).
Sadly, this is quite true. Fox running the henhouse, and it's dinner-time.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
How does Facebook and Google see that I binge-play Elder Scrolls Online an entire night?
Because they see your "signal" go dark for the night and you talk about it on some service later that Google can see (i.e. they know now). Or maybe the company that runs Elder Scrolls just told them since there is nothing stoping THEM from selling your info.
Meanwhile if you had played over a VPN your ISP would know nothing. They are literally the only service it's actually possible to keep in the dark, yet you want to make a fuss about what they can see.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I happened to be at the National Zoo in DC this weekend. Please be nicer to orangutans and don't compare them to the current Oval Office occupant. They are intelligent, interesting, and they seem to have a sense of humor.
They identify with how thin skinned their dear leader is. The thing I am frequently amused by is that the Trump side largely sticks to personal attacks and insults in response to questions or thoughts about actual policy ideas.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
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...
Not really.
I don't believe 9/11 was an inside job. I do believe many Muslims in America cheered on that day, and many of them were living in New York and New Jersey.
I trust that we did land men on the Moon, returned them to Earth, and could do it again.
The Earth is not, in fact, flat.
The Nazi Holocaust, one of several attempted genocides in human history, did happen. I've met both survivors and liberators.
I believe that Trump ran as a Republican, but was rejected by the GOP leadership and most Republican elected representatives, which is obvious upon inspection of the record. He has no friends in either party leadership. And the GOP leadership is dedicated to avoiding defeat, rendering them virtually (in the literal sense of that word) unable to govern.
I believe that my Internet provider has been selling data on how I use their service despite and ind defiance of existing laws. And repealing any regulation or law to prevent it will change little or nothing. Even accountability cannot be legislated in the current environment. Pretending your Internet use is in any way secret is fantasy, and you should act as if everything it known and used to your disadvantage. Want proof?
- Search for 'Shipping Containers'
- Watch the ads you see change to focus on shipping containers. Everywhere. For a long time.
- Search for something you want to buy.
- Then buy it.
- Watch the ads focus on the item you no longer need to purchase.
- When you do look to purchase something, especially a commodity item, watch for pricing to change as much as +/- 150% across different sites. Remember who wanted to overcharge you.
- Learn to ignore online ads, or, if you wish to punish them, take a moment and click through in a new window or tab. Leave it there and go on about your business. Let them build a false profile, and false empty clicks.
We have been inundated by advertising all my life. TV and radio commercials focused on the assumed audience. Print ads less so, so more and more outrageous. Streaming your TV doesn't solve it, it focuses their attention - they no longer have to shotgun the ads at a wide audience based on brute force metrics, they can literally hit you between the eyes because you streamed 'xxx'. As if the apps, services, all that weren't gathering up information about you to sell everywhere, even back to your ISP, so they know how much to overcharge you.
Really, you think you're going to win any of this? NO, we should be looking to profit from the use of our information. Even discounts based on preferential marketing aren't enough. When we can make them pay us for our eyeballs, we have a chance to at least derive some minimal value.
Whatever you think, Trump is either the cure or the symptom. He is not the disease, and he is not part of the problem. He may not be the solution, but he is not what came before. That alone is not a negative. Get over it. The U.S. government is out of control, and it will be a painful process to either rein it in or succumb to it. Which path will we choose?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.