Trump Finalizes Repeal of Internet Privacy Regulations
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President Donald Trump signed a bill initiated by House Republicans that effectively strips Americans of privacy rights when it comes to their Internet search history. This revokes regulations that blocked ISPs (internet service providers) from selling or sharing their customer’s search history to third parties for the purpose of advertising.
The bill, passed by the House and Senate and signed by Donald Trump, revokes the rule known as ‘‘Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services,” which was established in October 2016 by the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC. This revision revokes internet customers from having a say over their data, effectively allowing companies and other third-parties to request and pay for access to customer’s search history and data.
Though this revision does allow ISPs to sell their customers’ data without their explicit permission, it does not allow them to share or sell the data of specific users or individuals. Although the data that ISPs and websites collect can never be completely anonymized, the vast majority of this data that ISPs now have the ability to share has no links to certain individuals. As Mike Masnick from TechDirt explains, “It's basically impossible to anonymize that kind of data entirely. But no one is out there ‘selling your browsing history’ in a way that someone else can go buy it.”
Many online groups and Internet celebrities have banded against what they believe is a violation of their Internet privacy rights. Many popular YouTubers, such as h3h3productions, have made videos explaining the outrage they feel and even suggesting that viewers attempt to buy the data of Congressmen that supported the bill. Several campaigns have been created on sites like GoFundMe to buy the data of supporting Congressmen and two of which have currently garnered upwards of $86,950 and $211,040.
This controversial resolution comes amid American fears of restrictions on privacy rights after the most recent voting season. Many believe that the passage of this resolution is a stepping stone for the U.S. government to strip important online rights, the most noteworthy of which being net neutrality, the idea that internet service providers should enable equal access to all content on the internet regardless of the source.