Senate voted to allow selling your browser history to advertisers

Written by Matti Robinson @ 25 Mar 2017 12:11 User comments (5)

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to allow service providers to sell private web browsing data to third parties, namely advertisers. Under Democratic control the Senate voted to apply new Federal Communications Commission rules to internet service providers (ISPs) last October but the proposal to eliminate them has now passed the Senate 50-48.

Once the ruling is passed, after a Republican majority in the House votes for it, your ISP can sell your private web browsing data to third parties without seeking acceptance from either the consumer or the courts. Usually ISPs would sell the data to advertisers or ad networks for them to target you more efficiently.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called what seems to be an inevitable reversal of the FCC rules a "crushing loss for online privacy". If the House of Representatives pass the reversal it can be only be stopped by a President's veto. Will Trump be worried about privacy of the citizens in this case? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Ars Technica has released a new guide on explaining how this new ruling might affect you and in what ways you could fight it. This includes using HTTPS, VPN services or Tor.

Tags: EFF Privacy U.S. Congress US Senate advertising Advertisements Donald Trump

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5 user comments

130.3.2017 10:10

msmithfl

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Clickbait title grab on this. Get your facts straight.

The vote actually stopped implementation of a NEW regulation, NOT anything that allows ISP's to do something they aren't already doing.

The vote is definitely stupid for elected officials that claim they are trying to help their constituents. That is, unless the only constituents they care about are large, money-spending corporations.

But, at least get the story straight or you'll lose credibility when you need it.

230.3.2017 13:55

cdhanks

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Originally posted by msmithfl:
Clickbait title grab on this. Get your facts straight.

The vote actually stopped implementation of a NEW regulation, NOT anything that allows ISP's to do something they aren't already doing.

The vote is definitely stupid for elected officials that claim they are trying to help their constituents. That is, unless the only constituents they care about are large, money-spending corporations.

But, at least get the story straight or you'll lose credibility when you need it.

Perhaps you should do more research before commenting. Under Obama a rule was put in place to protect our privacy. Drumpf and his cronies just overturned that rule that now allows the sale of our (once) private searches so we can be deluged with advertising tailored to our search history. Welcome to a brave new world.

330.3.2017 18:18

msmithfl

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Originally posted by cdhanks:

Originally posted by msmithfl:
Clickbait title grab on this. Get your facts straight.

The vote actually stopped implementation of a NEW regulation, NOT anything that allows ISP's to do something they aren't already doing.

The vote is definitely stupid for elected officials that claim they are trying to help their constituents. That is, unless the only constituents they care about are large, money-spending corporations.

But, at least get the story straight or you'll lose credibility when you need it.

Perhaps you should do more research before commenting. Under Obama a rule was put in place to protect our privacy. Drumpf and his cronies just overturned that rule that now allows the sale of our (once) private searches so we can be deluged with advertising tailored to our search history. Welcome to a brave new world.

Did that, the rule wouldn't take effect until December.

431.3.2017 18:46

ivymike

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"The best democracy money can buy"

53.4.2017 07:18

Jemborg

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This is unethical imo.

Opera has a VPN built in I understand. You have to turn it on.

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This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Apr 2017 @ 7:18

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Senate voted to allow selling your browser history to advertisers

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