The GOP Just Sold Your Porn History
In March Senate Republicans voted to repeal the Federal Communications Commission rules protecting the privacy of your online activity. The House followed suit, and Trump signed off on the stinker in April. Now the telecoms that provide your basic service can sell the records of what you do online to anyone or any company for any purpose whatsoever—your internet browsing history, geolocation history, phone call history—everything that you do online. And most people do everything online these days, from managing their bank accounts and medical care to surfing their favorite porn sites.
Google and Facebook, of course, already harvest all this private data and use it for targeted advertising, offering opt-in user policies that are forever creeping toward more intrusion and less privacy. Now Verizon, Comcast, Charter and other broadband providers can do the same thing, but with one big difference—while you can easily stop using Facebook or select a search engine other than Google, it’s a lot harder to change broadband providers, especially in areas with only one or two offering service.
It’s all about advertising, competition and innovation, the telecoms argued, but what we’ve learned in the last few years is that once your private activity escapes online, there’s no telling where it will end up and for what purpose. Maybe what you do is perfectly legal, but nevertheless embarrassing. Many celebrities have been humiliated by pirated videos going viral, and many people have lost their jobs due to indiscreet postings.
