US Senate votes to allow ISPs to sell your internet history

Vote passed today at 50:48

Here's the details: https://www.privateinternetaccess.c...ules-let-isps-telecoms-sell-internet-history/

TLDR;

Despite widespread disapproval from constituents, S.J.Res 34 has passed the United States Senate with a vote of 50-48, with two absent votes. Earlier today, at 12:25 Eastern March 23, 2017, the US Senate voted on S.J.Res 34, and will use the Congressional Review Act to strip away broadband privacy protections that kept Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecoms from selling your internet history and app data usage to third parties. S.J.Res 34 was first introduced by 23 Republican Senators earlier this month and its blitz approval is a giant blow to privacy rights in the United States.

The resolution, which is now effectively half passed, will hand responsibility of broadband privacy regulation from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and disallow the FCC from making any rules protecting Internet privacy ever again.



So chances are it will also pass the House and become law...

 

[Null]

The internet is not a human right

Except at this point it is as important as food, water, and electricity. You cannot find gainful employment without a fundamental understanding of technology in the modern world. Governments and companies should not be allowed to monitor or restrict our phone calls in any way. Governments and ISPs should not be allowed to monitor, restrict, or redirect the Internet in any way. Water companies don't get to decide what households get the good water for a fucking reason mate. You're literally advocating a fucking postmodern ancap dystopian novel setting.

Not to mention, how the fuck do you even know if these companies are using your information? You won't even have a fucking clue. It'd all be behind lock and key. You wouldn't even be able to make informed purchasing decisions.

 

[Calooby]

I agree wholeheartedly. I think that the only thing, when it comes to an ISP, that you should be paying for, is internet service, and that's it.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

Except at this point it is as important as food, water, and electricity. You cannot find gainful employment without a fundamental understanding of technology in the modern world.

No it's not. Without food or water, you will die. Without the internet, life goes on. There are tons of people who don't use the internet on a daily basis. Is it convenient? For sure. Is it absolutely necessary to survive or to even get a job? lol no. You think a steel worker, the guy who flips your burger, a plumber or a mechanic needs the internet to do their job? They don't. They don't need a 'fundamental understanding of technology in the modern world' to replace your tranny, unclog your sink or pick up your trash.

The vast majority of jobs are not dependent on modern technology or the internet. Is it really useful for tons of companies? Sure, but it doesn't most of the workers. A car is a lot more necessary to be part of the modern world, get a job and be able to live your life in society. Do you think we should make sure the government gets involved in that business as well?

Not to mention that this is not in any way a rebuttal to me saying that if companies front pay all of the cash they need to be able to connect themselves and their customers to the internet, it's none of your business the way that they do. What is your business is whether you want to give them cash for the service they provide.

Not happy about how they do it? Then front the cash yourself, start an ISP and do it the way you want to. You don't have the capital? Then tough luck. People don't have to run businesses according to the way they want you to, only the way their board, owners and shareholders want them to. Because that's what keeps them in business in the first place.

Governments and companies should not be allowed to monitor or restrict our phone calls in any way. Governments and ISPs should not be allowed to monitor, restrict, or redirect the Internet in any way. Water companies don't get to decide what households get the good water for a fucking reason mate. You're literally advocating a fucking postmodern ancap dystopian novel setting.

Water companies are not like ISPs. And if you think the government versus private companies being in charge means you won't get poisoned, just take a look at Flynt, Michigan.

To claim that me saying 'ISPs are private companies and they should decide themselves how they want to operate, and its your job as a customer and private citizen to decide whether you want to do business with them or not' can't in any way whatsoever be infered to say I agree whether private companies should be allowed to direct unhealthy water in people's houses. That's ridiculous

Not to mention, how the fuck do you even know if these companies are using your information? You won't even have a fucking clue. It'd all be behind lock and key. You wouldn't even be able to make informed purchasing decisions.

Yes you can, you sign contracts with them, and said contracts cover what they do with your information.

You know that "user agreement" fine print everyone doesn't read because its all legalese and tiny and boring to parse? Well that shit matters and if you are willing as a customer to sign an agreement without being cognizant to what is in it, then you bear full responsibility if it blows up in your face

It's your job to protect your own shit, not for companies or the government to baby you through drastic legislations that impede the free market.

 

[XYZpdq]

a mechanic needs the internet

My mechanic regularly bitches about having to download install patches for the diagnostic equipment and uses the onlines to track down parts for clients with older cars.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

My mechanic regularly bitches about having to download install patches for the diagnostic equipment and uses the onlines to track down parts for clients with older cars.

yes, and I'm sure that there are plumbers that use their smartphones to help with their work.

However the bulk of them still don't depend on technology, and most jobs out there are not technology based either and don't require "a fundamental understand of how technology works in the modern world" that makes the internet on the same level as fucking water.

 

[thepianogeniusfromshine]

Guess I better use a vpn from now on. Any reccomendations? Also, what's the difference between the paid and free ones?

 

[Cato]

If you don't like Null's analogy, I would suggest this is fairly equivalent to removing tenants' rights protections laws and allowing landlords to sell access to occupied units to marketing people to enter apartments, conduct searches and compile information on tenants whenever they want without the tenant's consent or awareness. Except that's actually arguably *less* invasive than S.J.Res 34 (I would rather some stranger search my residence than my computer, and I don't have anything illegal on my computer or in my home) and buying a private residence is actually far more realistic for most people than starting their own ISP...so S.J.Res 34 is significantly worse.

Look, I lean libertarian and free market but any talk of "market freedumbs" and "gubment over-regulation" in regards to this is by far secondary to the incredibly obvious and very tangible significant negative quality of life impact and slide towards a dystopian cyberpunk nightmare world that this involves.

 

[Null]

Look, I lean libertarian and free market but any talk of "market freedumbs" and "gubment over-regulation" in regards to this is by far secondary to the incredibly obvious and very tangible significant negative quality of life impact and slide towards a dystopian cyberpunk nightmare world that this involves.

The government exists to protect people from external and internal problems. We regulate water, electricity, radioactivity, weapons, chemical use, rental practices, etc because it helps improve quality of life. That's the entire reason why we congregate as nation states. I'm anti-FCC but there has to be some kind of law that strictly forces companies to not fucking spy on everything you do.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Welp they did it

Passed in the House so its now fully legal for your local ISP to sell your ass out to anyone whose got the bucks.

Go America!

Here's a fun fact: The House tacked on a rider to the bill disallowing "political members" from it. So you can't run out and buy your local Rep's history to see if he digs furry porn...but he can buys yours!

 

[IwegalBadnik]

Welp they did it

Passed in the House so its now fully legal for your local ISP to sell your ass out to anyone whose got the bucks.

Go America!

Here's a fun fact: The House tacked on a rider to the bill disallowing "political members" from it. So you can't run out and buy your local Rep's history to see if he digs furry porn...but he can buys yours!

Not a bit of that strikes me as surprising.

 

[Robotron]

Welp they did it

Passed in the House so its now fully legal for your local ISP to sell your ass out to anyone whose got the bucks.

Go America!

Here's a fun fact: The House tacked on a rider to the bill disallowing "political members" from it. So you can't run out and buy your local Rep's history to see if he digs furry porn...but he can buys yours!

Whelp, time to take up a career in politics then.

 

[Shokew]

It looks like I'm getting a VPN account then. I just need one that can protect multiple PCs / Laptops on one account and I'll be in business.

 

[Cato]

Here's a fun fact: The House tacked on a rider to the bill disallowing "political members" from it. So you can't run out and buy your local Rep's history to see if he digs furry porn...but he can buys yours!

I don't doubt this, but do you have a source?

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Welp they did it

Passed in the House so its now fully legal for your local ISP to sell your ass out to anyone whose got the bucks.

Go America!

Here's a fun fact: The House tacked on a rider to the bill disallowing "political members" from it. So you can't run out and buy your local Rep's history to see if he digs furry porn...but he can buys yours!

Well that bites. But not entirely unexpected (It's the fucking government)

So much for seeing if a senator made some shitty OC that shoots laser beams out its dick.

 

[DZ 305]

Whelp, time to take up a career in politics then.

And if you have a senator up for reelection in 2018, might be a good time to throw them out on their ass

 

[IwegalBadnik]

And if you have a senator up for reelection in 2018, might be a good time to throw them out on their ass

Incumbents are usually difficult to topple. (Talking about it is fine, but I am skeptical of success)

 

[Internet War Criminal]

The government exists to protect people from external and internal problems.

Not in America, no it doesn't.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Read the whole Declaration of Independence. Read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Read the Federalist Papers.

You, I and everyone have natural rights, and the government exists only to protect those rights so we can seek to do with them what we wish. It is not the job of the government to protect us from "internal or external problems" when those "problems" are not within the purview of the highly restricted role of the Federal Government.

You want to live in a State where ISPs can't do that? Then petition your local officials and pass a law on a local level to prevent them from doing that shit. It's not the Federal Government's job to pass regulations intruding on private businesses and telling them how to run their businesses

 

[DZ 305]

The Federal government has the authority to regulate a private business. Its a very broad power.

The Congress shall have Power ... To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Wickard v. Filburn settled this matter with the New Deal programs. The Supreme Court found that "even if appellee's activity be local and though it may not be regarded as commerce, it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce and this irrespective of whether such effect is what might at some earlier time have been defined as 'direct' or 'indirect'." gives Congress the power to regulate anything that has a substantial economic effect on commerce even if that effect is indirect"
It recognizes Congress' power to regulate under the Commerce Clause, even if the effect is not direct, it just needs to be significant. They were talking about crop quotas set by the government, but I don't think anyone will deny that ISPs have a significant impact on commerce.

McCulloch v. Maryland reinforces the implied powers Congress has under the Necessary and Proper Clause, so there is no question of Congressional authority.

 

[RI 360]

You don't have a right to food, water, or internet, you fucking socialists. Negative rights > positive rights:

Prof. Aeon Skoble describes the key differences between positive and negative rights. Fundamentally, positive rights require others to provide you with either a good or service. A negative right, on the other hand, only requires others to abstain from interfering with your actions.

 

[Caesare]

i'll make sure any louisiana representatives who vote for it are the candidates i dont vote for when they run for congress again

Both our senators, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy voted in favor of it. They just assumed office in January so you have to wait six years before you can vote against them lol.