While we all focused on the house work on the Trumpcare healthcare bill, today the US Senate voted straight party line to significantly change the rules of the internet — and put corporate rights to your data ahead of your privacy.
arstechnica.com/...
The Senate action "would allow Comcast, Verizon, Charter, AT&T, and other broadband providers to take control away from consumers and relentlessly collect and sell their sensitive information without the consent of that family," Markey said. That sensitive information includes health and financial information, and information about children, he said. ISPs want to "draw a map" of where families shop and go to school, and sell it to data brokers "or anyone else who wants to make a profit off you," Markey said.
"Your home broadband provider can know when you wake up each day—either by knowing the time each morning that you log on to the Internet to check the weather/news of the morning, or through a connected device in your home," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said during Senate floor debate yesterday. "And that provider may know immediately if you are not feeling well—assuming you decide to peruse the Internet like most of us to get a quick check on your symptoms. In fact, your broadband provider may know more about your health—and your reaction to illness—than you are willing to share with your doctor."
The change allows for significant alterations in how your internet service could work in the future — and should certainly be a wakeup call to all who browse the internet.
The EFF lays out past measures that ISPs have used when the policy of allowing traffic monitoring where in place: www.eff.org/… and of course, bemoan the protection going away. Not mentioned by the EFF, though, are new arrays of how to sell and use your data and who may be interested buyers.
In the past, years ago, simply monitoring your web history for ad sales were a great potential revenue stream available to ISPs — not only were they paid by you, the consumer, but they were able to double dip by serving precut ads to you based on information they harvested from you.
From the EFF:
ISPs have been lobbying for weeks to get lawmakers to repeal the FCC’s rules that stand between them and using even creepier ways to track and profit off of your every move online. Republicans in the Senate just voted 50-48 (with two absent votes) to approve a Congressional Review Action resolution from Sen. Jeff Flake which—if it makes it through the House—would not only roll back the FCC’s rules but also prevent the FCC from writing similar rules in the future.
The measure, put forward by Arizona’s Jeff Flake, not only overturns the rules but it puts limits on the FCC as to similar rules. Why does this matter?
Because new means of monitoring traffic and managing your data? Your ability to move for protections in the future would be significantly limited. Why does this matter? Because ISPs, in a caching proxy or catch and monitor mode can see all data and transactions via HTTP only sites, and can see at least domains and transfers via HTTPS sites.
What’s the difference? While sites like DailyKos.Com can be made HTTPS (thanks to tools like chrome.google.com/...), which means your ISP would see a domain name and URL easily enough; sites like WebMD? They are HTTP only for the most part. Meaning your ISP can see search entries, responses from domain, and more. And guess what? If there is value in it, the ISP has no problem being the man in the middle and following your HTTPS traffic as well — even though it may only yield them URLs, in many cases, that’s enough.
Why does that matter? Thanks to this legislation, your ISP may know if you have cancer concerns, think you may be pregnant, or if you’re shopping for a new doctor — all information that smart insurance providers in TrumpCare may be eager to have access to under this legislation.
Oh, but that’s OK. You only travel to HTTPS domains, right? Are any of those domains for purposes you may not want others to know about? Well, tough. If you’ve investigated any sensitive subject — whether it was a trip to another country or a search for facts on medical marijuana, your data is now open for sale to bidders; and thanks to newer, better service offers, an easy way for major corporations to invest in knowing who you are, and why they might not want to hire you.
Today, the US Senate voted to take away your protections to have your web searches and queries, the websites you visit, the videos you stream, and any facts they may want to have about you.
It could all be for sale to the highest bidder.
If your senator was a yes, let them know: www.senate.gov/...
UPDATE:
Minor headline changes and links to a few tools.