Privacy Concerns Loom as Congress Moves to Allow Internet Providers to Share Users' Sensitive Data

[thisisnotmyname]

I have a VPN service running on all the devices I own that support it (phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, even redundantly in VMs) but now I'm also considering getting a WRT-54 and modding it for whole network VPN. At this point I want complete isolation of all IoT devices as well. I suppose at some point I'll reach VPN inception as my VMs are VPN'ed within a VPN'ed desktop accessing across a VPN'ed router.

This whole thing is ridiculous though, the role of an infrastructure company such as ISP is completely different from a services company such as Google. They don't need to be "competitive" with one another as they are (and should remain) completely separate industries. I can choose (and do) not to do business with Google due to their approach to users and data as a commodity, I can't choose not to connect to the internet (not reasonably in this day and age). This forces us into backward approaches such as my heavy use of VPN which then affects the bandwidth I've subscribed for etc...
[doublepost=1490800440][/doublepost]

I don't look at porn and I don't put any of that data on the internet anyway, so I'm good.

And you're not a criminal so we don't need things like forth and fifth amendment protections. If the police department wants to wander into your home and take a look around that should be fine. This is an incredibly selfish approach to policy decisions.

 

[riverfreak]

Welp, guess it's time to really start researching a good VPN. Any recommendations?

I highly, HIGHLY recommend Golden Frog's VyprVPN service. Among other great features, it includes a kill switch so no traffic flows if your VPN connection drops, auto-reconnect, great iOS and MacOS apps that show connection latencies with servers, and server locations across the globe so the connection is almost always unnoticeable.

You can try it out for free for three months.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Add it to the list of abuses.

...to be read at the time of execution.

 

[Sasparilla]

This is truly disappointing - the U.S. political system is almost totally corrupt. The sponsors had the vote done in the Senate 1st amongst all the confusion of the health care thing and interviewing the new supreme court nominee....There they passed it by 1 vote.

If they had done the Senate vote 2nd (after this House Vote), this would have been killed for sure. The Dems are corrupt as well, but the Republicans - as can be seen here - take it to a higher "right out in the open" level.

This is "The Swamp" in action. Now on to the President to willingly sign it...and tell us what a good deal this is.

Net Nuetrality next and after that is gone the ISP's could legally start having "problems", on purpose, with your VPN connections if they chose to...

I can help friends and family set up as blockers and secure their wifi setups.

But now I have to get people I care about to route traffic through a vpn as well? That's going to be much harder.

This is not good at all.

I'm in the same place. Have to get buy in and effort from them. I've got them using DuckDuckGo already. The Tor Browser (Firefox based) seems like the easiest thing - install it and go, then in instances where they have trouble they fire up a regular browser, the ISP sees them, and the get past the problem...then back to the Tor Browser.

VPN for me, no problem. VPN for my wife, Mother in law...? Ugh...can see potential headaches...on to the future.

 

[riverfreak]

I have a VPN service running on all the devices I own that support it (phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, even redundantly in VMs) but now I'm also considering getting a WRT-54 and modding it for whole network VPN. At this point I want complete isolation of all IoT devices as well. I suppose at some point I'll reach VPN inception as my VMs are VPN'ed within a VPN'ed desktop accessing across a VPN'ed router.

This whole thing is ridiculous though, the role of an infrastructure company such as ISP is completely different from a services company such as Google. They don't need to be "competitive" with one another as they are (and should remain) completely separate industries. I can choose (and do) not to do business with Google due to their approach to users and data as a commodity, I can't choose not to connect to the internet (not reasonably in this day and age). This forces us into backward approaches such as my heavy use of VPN which then affects the bandwidth I've subscribed for etc...
[doublepost=1490800440][/doublepost]

And you're not a criminal so we don't need things like forth and fifth amendment protections. If the police department wants to wander into your home and take a look around that should be fine. This is an incredibly selfish approach to policy decisions.

LOL at VPN Inception.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

Sickening. Net neutrality is next up on the chopping block, I hear. Our government: of big business, by big business and for big business. Screw the people.

In one word:

fascism

 

[riverfreak]

You mean the protections that this blocks? The ones that never went into effect? This ruling passes the responsibility back to the FTC.

Actually, this bars the FCC from participating in drafting any such protections like (those that had been) proposed in the future. It essentially removes the FCC from oversight of personal privacy issues as related to ISPs.

That is, I think, the only way this is justified by supporters -- that it's government overreach, even if those protections would be overwhelmingly supported by consumers.

 

[Gasu E.]

This is all politicians for the most part. Also, did the repubs in congress accept a payment for their vote?

You have an alternative explanation?

 

[webbuzz]

Actually, this bars the FCC from participating in drafting any such protections like (those that had been) proposed in the future. It essentially removes the FCC from oversight of personal privacy issues as related to ISPs.

That is, I think, the only way this is justified by supporters -- that it's government overreach, even if those protections would be overwhelmingly supported by consumers.

You think the FTC, which had the responsibility before, is powerless against ISPs?

 

[nia820]

I guess VPN companies will be reaping the benefits of this legislation.
[doublepost=1490801593][/doublepost]How are conservatives going to spin this one?

 

[ibookg409]

Have you ever searched for anything health related? If someone is diagnosed with an illness then they'll likely research it and then the data of the sites they visited and what they look at will be sold.

I'm in perfect health. Once I googled if "liberalism is a mental doisorder" but it's not in the DSM yet.

 

[brendu]

The Republicans of congress just showed that they're for sale to the highest bidder, in case we didn't already know that. Pure corruption.

So are the democrats dude. This isn't a partisan issue. Our government is for sale. The only solution is to pool our resources and buy our politicians back.

 

[mozumder]

That doesn't mean it affects their vote.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So sweet, so pure, so innocent. An actual true-believer conservative out in the wild!

I want to hug you.

 

[brendu]

Keep making claims you can't source. It's very entertaining.

This is widely understood and only an ostrich hiding its head in the sand would think this vote passed for any reason other than legal bribery.

 

[mozumder]

I'm in perfect health. Once I googled if "liberalism is a mental doisorder" but it's not in the DSM yet.

Ironically conservatives are already classified as having mental disorders.. mostly in their fear responses. Conservatives are literally more scared than liberals. It's why they need guns, because they're scared and frightened people.

And I want you to google that.

 

[brendu]

Dude, I despise all politicians. I think each and every one of them wants to either gentle rape our butts or brutally rape our butts. Every election cycle they just rotate rolls. So if this year the democrats are raping us the republicans are holding us down. Then next year the republicans will rape us and the democrats will hold us down.

But one sounds just stupid if they make a claim that their votes were purchased and then can't back it up.
[doublepost=1490798815][/doublepost]
I've made political donations and haven't expected anything in return. But keep spouting your rhetoric, its fun.
[doublepost=1490798875][/doublepost]

I prefer it to your program of reconstructing reality and wild speculation.

Why would you make political donations if you despise all policticians and think they all want to rape us? That's pretty stupid.
[doublepost=1490802552][/doublepost]

Ironically conservatives are already classified as having mental disorders.. mostly in their fear responses. Conservatives are literally more scared than liberals. It's why they need guns, because they're scared and frightened people.

And I want you to google that.

That's as stupid of a generalization as anyone who thinks all Muslims are terrorists.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Nope not at all. They just donate out of the goodness of their heart.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming of ignoring reality.

This is also a fairly simplistic (and cynical) view on political contributions. This can devolve into a chicken and egg discussion but contributions are generally made to politicians that already align with you own interests. If I'm dependent on overseas manufacturing I'm going to contribute to a politician that has a more globalist philosophy, if I'm organized labor I'm going to contribute to a politician that espouses support for workers, if I'm an environmental group I'm going to contribute to a politician that supports heavy regulations, if I'm a telecom giant I'm going to contribute to those that want a laissez faire FCC. I'm not "buying" a particular vote but attempting to keep (or gain) seats with politicians that are likely to support causes I agree with. At high enough dollar levels that's also going to get me access, combined with my lobbying efforts I'll likely get an audience with that lawmaker when a particular bill I care about comes up and I can make my case to the best of my ability and attempt to sway their opinion. There are no guarantees though. Lawmakers have plenty to think about when deciding their vote: their philosophical stance, disposition of their constituency, optics of being for or against and how that will play out in press and social, and yes, effect that will have with respect to future donors. But in a lot of cases there are donors on both sides of an issue so voting your conscience will still provide you financial support after the fact.

Republicans tend to favor fewer regulations on businesses and market solutions and - although I disagree here - I can see them preferring to allow the market to work this out via things like privacy policies or economic incentives for those who are concerned (e.g. lower price service for those willing to opt-in to targeted ads or higher price service with strict privacy policy). People could legitimately support this bill without "OMG big bizniz jus bought teh vote!!111!!!." There's even a case to be made for leaving this to FCC/FTC rule making.

I'll repeat, I very much disagree with this move, but I don't think supporting it automatically makes one an evil puppet of industry.

 

[mozumder]

Why would you make political donations if you despise all policticians and think they all want to rape us? That's pretty stupid.
[doublepost=1490802552][/doublepost]

That's as stupid of a generalization as anyone who thinks all Muslims are terrorists.

No, since this is actual researched psychology/neuroscience.

Conservatives literally have different brains than liberals, where the irrational fear-response centers are larger in conservatives.

 

[ksnell]

If you are a Republican please explain your reasoning behind supporting this type of repeal.

After all you voted these guys into office, so I assume you support a lack of privacy and the sale of your private information?

As a libertarian, this is one of the policies I hate the most about the Right. To be fair, Hillary was a MUCH worse option regarding our individual rights and freedoms, so let's not get delusional about what our options were.

 

[Altis]

No, since this is actual researched psychology/neuroscience.

Conservatives literally have different brains than liberals, where the irrational fear-response centers are larger in conservatives.

I'm liberal myself...

But I see the exact same thing on both ends of the spectrum. It isn't conservatives who have set up "Safe Spaces" all over my campus.

Progressives want everything banned in fear of someone being offended or feelings hurt. They got rid of the weight scales in the gym at my school because the science of mass and gravity is too offensive.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

No, since this is actual researched psychology/neuroscience.

Conservatives literally have different brains than liberals, where the irrational fear-response centers are larger in conservatives.

I'm liberal myself...

But I see the exact same thing on both ends of the spectrum. It isn't conservatives who have set up "Safe Spaces" all over my campus.

Progressives want everything banned in fear of someone being offended or feelings hurt. They got rid of the weight scales in the gym at my school because the science of mass and gravity is too offensive.

Right, there are extremes on both ends of the spectrum and it is possible that these extremes are in part driven by psychological disorder. Thankfully most of us are somewhere in the middle (to the left or right of center) and capable of having a healthy discussion without regressing into attacks on each other's mental states. Thank you for being sane Altis

 

[brendu]

No, since this is actual researched psychology/neuroscience.

Conservatives literally have different brains than liberals, where the irrational fear-response centers are larger in conservatives.

Again a generalization. I know many conservatives that aren't afraid of the world and don't own guns. I know some liberals who are terrified of terrorists and do own guns. You can call it science but it's as ridiculous as saying blacks people have different brains than white people so they can't learn the same and should go to different schools. It's a ridiculous thing to claim.

 

[ibookg409]

Ironically conservatives are already classified as having mental disorders.. mostly in their fear responses. Conservatives are literally more scared than liberals. It's why they need guns, because they're scared and frightened people.

And I want you to google that.

Source for this claim please. Prove the "irony".

 

[thisisnotmyname]

If you are a Republican please explain your reasoning behind supporting this type of repeal.

After all you voted these guys into office, so I assume you support a lack of privacy and the sale of your private information?

What a ridiculous assumption (bolded statement). I'd challenge you to select any national political figure you voted for and review their policy stances and voting record. I will bet you will find that you do not support every single thing they do. Since this country has a largely binary voting process we all need to select the candidate that best aligns with our belief and make our vote; we may still disagree with specific actions they take.

 

[ibookg409]

Ironically conservatives are already classified as having mental disorders.. mostly in their fear responses. Conservatives are literally more scared than liberals. It's why they need guns, because they're scared and frightened people.

And I want you to google that.

Source for this claim please. Prove the "irony".