The Republican Party Is Ready to Sell Off Your Internet Privacy at a Level That Boggles the Mind
By Thom Hartmann A...
Trump's new Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, recently co-authored what is either an intentionally or naively deceptive op-ed in The Washington Post.
Pai suggested that when Republicans in the House and Senate - without a single Democratic vote in either body - voted to legalize your Internet Service Provider - your ISP - to sell your personal (and you-thought-private) browsing information and the content of your emails and video-viewing to anybody they choose, they were actually working to "protect" your privacy. He knew this, he wrote, because critics of the GOP policy "don't understand how advertising works."
That claim is unadulterated BS.
He starts out saying that an ISP would never sell your private browsing\emailing\viewing history because it "would violate ISP's privacy promises." True enough, at this moment - because those privacy policies reflect the law that banned such behavior.
But anybody who's ever bothered to read online Terms Of Service knows that such policies can, quite literally, be changed in less than a day, to accommodate new legal opportunities. To think they won't is either naïve or profoundly disingenuous.
Read more here.
Comments
#2
I heard this morning that Massachusetts is considering making their own privacy rules to counter the federal bull____. perhaps more states will join in and do the right thing.
#3
Funny, I can't remember hearing the Twitter Master or any Republican politicians ever promising to sell us out (literally) on the campaign trail. It's such a winning issue too! You'd think they'd be proud of it -- shouting on the stump above the roaring rallies; blogging all over the internet swamp; opinion pieces flooding the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Breitbart Rag; back-to-back interviews on Fux News and lie radio. Not a peep! Very strange.
I guess they were so wrapped up, twenty-four seven, promising the moon, fear-mongering, and hating on Obama, Hillary, and Bernie that they just didn't have the time or corporate money to tell the truth, the whole truth, to their cow-eyed crowds. What a missed opportunity! They could have peeled off so many more votes from the Dumbocrats who were stupidly trying to protect net neutrality and internet privacy.
Oh well, at least Congress had a full and fair, bipartisan debate and finally got this important piece of legislation for the people into the Pussy Grabber's little fingers to sign. Whew -- dodged that bullet!
#4
So Trump is going to create more jobs by selling our private info from emails, etc. to businesses who can use this information to solicit business from us and use that info in ways that can only be imagined. Another one of Trump's way to fill his false campaign promises.
#5
What I read, research, buy or look at on the Internet or anywhere else is my personal and private business. The whole concept of selling that information comes across as an attempt to sell more than my privicy; it's an attempt to sell my indentity.
#6
I wrote to my alt right Congressman and Senator and they both replied that the preventing the ISP's from selling our information was a regulation and that they are opposed to burdensome regulations. Some burden.
"This joint resolution repealed the FCC’s duplicative, unnecessary regulations. The last thing America needs is more burdensome regulations and unaccountable bureaucracy. Rest assured that I will continue to fight to decrease the size and scope of the federal government by reducing regulatory burdens for all Americans." Ken Buck
"I voted for this resolution because it removes burdensome regulations that were applied unequally across technologies. I firmly believe that consumer privacy and coherent privacy rules are of the utmost importance." Cory Gardner
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These assholes should have to pay me for the use of my personal information. This is not only a matter of privacy, it is a fucking ripoff. I know that some where in the fine print of their "sacred contract" there is some clause where I agree to release my personal information to them for using their services. But such bullshit adhesion clauses should be illegal and should be considered void both as a matter of law and public policy. However, now that Gorsuch is on the Supreme Court, we can kiss any chances of the Court protecting us from large corporations goodbye.
When corporate America says trust us, it is about as reliable as when the pretender in the White House says "trust me". Is there anything that is not for sale anymore? Do we still have higher values than mere economic profit? Greed is destroying the goodness of this country and it is leaving us without a moral compass.
I am with Bernie, it is time for a political revolution!