How Safe Is Your Information On The Internet Now That Congress Killed Internet Privacy Laws?

With every new technology, you have to give up a little of the old ways. One thing that America is giving up with fervor — whether they know it or not — is their privacy. Every time you hop on the internet, you are unwittingly giving anyone who wants to take a peek, information about yourself, your habits, and who you are.

It seems like Americans are becoming more and more comfortable with giving their freedom and privacy away. Not only is it about the average American citizen; apparently the government isn’t that interested in keeping your private life, private. Killing the new internet privacy law that was put before, up for a vote is just one example of how your elected officials might not be working in your best interests.

Last Tuesday the US House of Representatives voted down a set of internet privacy rules that were created to keep your personal information personal. Due to the law not passing, it is now possible for internet service providers to sell information about you to the highest — or sometimes even the lowest — bidder. Now your information is open for any company who wants it; service providers can sell everything from your browsing histories to your financial or medical records. Shocked? You should be.

A bill to repeal the Federal Communications Commission’s regulations was voted on and is expected to be on President Trump’s desk for passing shortly. There is very little doubt that it will be signed into law. The bill seeks to change many of the privacy protections that internet users have had while browsing.

Under the Obama Administration, the Federal Communications Commission passed regulations to ensure that internet service providers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast were banned from selling individual information about their internet customers for advertising purposes. With the understanding that selling the information would take away the privacy of users, the bill provided some protection.

According to a Queens criminal defense attorney, by repealing the bill, all bets are off. Everything you do on the internet is now available to be sold without regulation. The reason the bill was repealed was that the Republican-dominated Senate believed that the rules unfairly targeted service providers and squashed their ability to compete. By putting additional hurdles on what they could and could not sell and access, the argument is that service providers are unfairly punished, which goes against the free capital system of the US.

Right now, social media and search engines such as Facebook and Google have very few governed regulations in relation to the Federal Trade Commission. The thought was that the service providers weren’t being given the same rights and privileges. That negates the real problem; no one should be privy to people’s personal information. Instead of changing the rules governing search engines and social media, the government went the other route to pull back protections. That hardly seems like a fair or good way to make things “equitable,” especially for the American audience using the internet.

The two components of the bill that were targeted to be overturned change the face of internet usage across the board. First, the rule that service internet providers must give explicit information to the consumer about what information they will be selling and collecting will be repealed.

The second repealed provision is that if a company should choose to sell or share any “sensitive” information about the consumer, they first needed to get the consumer’s consent to do so. The definition of “sensitive” data includes browsing histories, Social Security numbers, geolocations, email content and other confidential communication, health information, information pertaining to children and app usage. So basically, everything personal that a person does on the internet is now fair game.

The repeal of the act now makes it totally legal for service providers to sell and share all the things that you do on the internet without your approval or consent. Everything from medical information to financial data is now the property of whomever you use as your service provider. If it is attached to your IP address, it is now the property of the company that supplies your Internet service.

One more freedom and privacy has fallen to the wayside while the American public stands idly by, probably not even knowing that their private information can now be sold. Score one for big business and the government.