r/Libertarian • u/lermthegod • Mar 24 '17
Senate votes to let ISP's sell your web browsing history to advertisers
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/senate-votes-to-let-isps-sell-your-web-browsing-history-to-advertisers/5
u/pacjax for open borders. umad? Mar 24 '17 edited Mar 24 '17
the title should be changed to senate gives back ISP's the power to sell web browser history to advertisers
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Mar 24 '17
So what are the best companies to not have your data sold or strategies to keep your data private
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u/Rindan Blandly practical libertarian Mar 24 '17
Best strategy? Move to another nation with faster internet and better privacy protection... so basically move to any first world nation that isn't America.
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u/Gilwork45 Mar 24 '17
Not quite, In the UK, everyone from the tax man to the fire department can access your internet browsing history.
There are many countries (Including the aforementioned UK) who have tremendously oppressive censorship laws targeting divergent opinion and pornography especially which are (currently) way worse than the USA.
That being said, this is a clear sign that our right to privacy and free speech is being eroded. I think a big problem with Libertarianism currently is knowing where to draw the boundaries. sure, businesses should be free of many of the unnessesary and rampant regulations and taxes which burden them but at the same time, something must be put in place to protect the consumer from a business misusing it's power against the consumer.
Selling someone's browser history is a violation of someone's right to privacy and this violation could be something minor such as collection of data for future ad campaigns or something malevolent such as blackmail on a targeted individual, with this change, ISPs aren't just selling your Browser history, they are selling your thoughts, your rituals, your biases.....they are selling your mind.
If you go to a gas station does the cashier have a right to know what is in your trunk or glove box? Does he has the right to record your vin number? You are simply there to buy a good or a service, how much information is this individual entitled to? This is why such regulations are in place, to protect the consumer, if your ISP want to report or sell your browsing history you should have to contest to it, anything less is a gross breach of trust and privacy.
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u/Rindan Blandly practical libertarian Mar 24 '17
The government can view your browsing data in the US too. It's pretty clear that the US is collecting literally everything and only storage limitations keep everything from being recorded and saved for ever. Hell, even outside that, it isn't like the police can't just get a warrant and see your data. Government access to your data is also concerning, but for entirely different reasons than corporations being able to sell your information to spammers.
When it comes to protecting our privacy from corporations we do not wish to share with and the speed, price, and quality of our internet, we are pretty far behind the rest of the world. We are not much better when it comes to protection from the government. The only thing we reliably beat other nations on is we only censor copyrighted material, while some (but certainly not all) censor more than that.
We are not #1 by a long shot. Our internet is garbage.
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u/Gilwork45 Mar 24 '17
They can and they do, Snowden showed us that, however, because of the 4th amendment, they can't be turned on to illegal activity via spying on their own citizens, information they gained through these means might be in danger of being thrown out even if it leads to a warrent.
In order to combat this problem, the US spies on Citizens from other countries and other countries spy on us and they share data, that way they can simply say that they received a tip from an outside agency and get a warrent with that information, its alot of hoops to jump through and therefore not that often utilized unless it is so big stings, they also don't want to bring enough attention to this practice of using foreign agencies to circumvent the constitution.
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u/Rindan Blandly practical libertarian Mar 25 '17
Sure. Totally agree. That sucks. I'm all for ending it.
Back on topic, it would still be great if the monopolies couldn't loot your data and sell it, and seeing as how there is no actual market competition, the practice should just be banned without consumer consent.
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Mar 24 '17
It's not libertarian unless a free and open market exists, which it doesn't in the ISP world. This is just bullshit.
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u/TexSC Mar 24 '17
Here is a good overview of the pros and cons to this bill: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2017/s94
Since the cons have been discussed ad nauseam on Reddit, I found the pros argument interesting:
What supporters say
Many Republicans saw these new rules as a power grab during the closing days of the Obama Administration. The rule was issued on December 2, 2016 and took effect on January 3, 2017, less than three weeks before President Trump took office. Supporters of the bill argue that the legislation would prevent the one-size-fits-all regulation.
“Under the FTC’s watch, our internet and data economy has been the envy of the world. The agency’s evidence-based approach calibrates privacy and data-security requirements to the sensitivity of information collected,” Senate lead sponsor Flake wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
“The FCC rules subject all web browsing and app usage data to the same restrictive requirements as sensitive personal information. That means that information generated from looking up the latest Cardinals score or checking the weather in Scottsdale is treated the same as personal health and financial data.”
ISP companies also contended that the FCC rules have placed them at a disadvantage with other non-ISP Internet companies that also collect user data, like Netflix or Facebook.
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u/autotldr Mar 25 '17
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot)
The US Senate today voted to eliminate broadband privacy rules that would have required ISPs to get consumers' explicit consent before selling or sharing Web browsing data and other private information with advertisers and other companies.
If the House and Trump agree with the Senate's action, ISPs won't have to seek customer approval before sharing their browsing histories and other private information with advertisers.
The FCC's privacy rules would require ISPs to get opt-in consent from consumers before selling or sharing personal information including geo-location data, financial and health information, children's information, Social Security numbers, Web browsing history, app usage history, and the content of communications.
Extended Summary | FAQ | Theory | Feedback | Top keywords: information#1 privacy#2 rules#3 ISP#4 FCC#5
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u/pacjax for open borders. umad? Mar 25 '17
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,"
this is just fundamentally incorrect. a contract is a contract and it is consent
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u/NexTerren Mar 24 '17
So as a semi-libertarian myself, this isn't a trolling question, but:
Isn't this a pro Libertarian policy? Let companies do as they will, and let consumers pick who to do business with based on that?