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Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

nytimes.com

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Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#61

Post by wu-ikkyu »

somebehemoth wrote: post #15
good_sir_ant wrote: post #7

The article's main argument is that the ISPs are selling something that doesn't belong to them, but to the consumer. I don't like the idea of my personal information being sold, but how could you state this as fact? Shouldn't it be up to the consumer to choose to do business with a company that sells your personal info vs a company that does not?

Via precedent set by protecting phone calls: "For decades, in both Republican and Democratic administrations, federal rules have protected the privacy of the information in a telephone call. In 2016, the F.C.C., which I led as chairman under President Barack Obama, extended those same protections to the internet."

Wasn't much of a precedent:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-reco...

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#63

Post by zaroth »

Internet Provisers -- that's Google and Facebook, right?

On a more serious note, people need to understand that every domain you visit, every query you search, every digital conversation you have, every number you call, every movie you watch or book you read, everything you buy, unless you take active measures to mask your identity that record is being retained by as many different people that can get their hands on it as possible.

Let's be clear about what this bill is potentially changing -- not who is collecting the data but who can monetize it.

Frankly, a bill that allows monetization of data already collected is not about privacy it's about deregulation. As long as the data is retained, privacy is already lost.

I actually really like this bill because it exposes, well, how exposed we all are online. The more people understand how much tracking is going on, the more likely we can garner the will, the market, the demand for technological solutions which actually protect privacy rather than regulating monetization.

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#64

Post by JumpCrisscross »

thomnottom wrote: post #49
j2bax wrote: post #3

Is there anything the average user can do to protect their data/privacy from their ISP?

Start with not using their DNS servers (OpenDNS https://www.opendns.com ) Install HTTPS Everywhere ( https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere ) Install uBlock Origin (Chrome - https://chrome.google.com/.../ublock-origin / Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/ublock-origin/ )

Concur with your recommendations. Would throw some caution on the OpenDNS recommendation, though. They're U.S. based and owned by Cisco. Depending on your threat model, this may or may not be desirable.

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#65

Post by Latty »

xienze wrote: post #40

So the only thing I don't understand as far as the fuss about this is concerned -- everything I've read indicates that this is undoing a protection put in place late last year. So essentially we've gone back in time six months ago or so. If ISPs weren't selling our info then when they could have, why does it logically follow that we're now in some uncharted territory of ISPs selling personal info? Or is this simply b…

I don't get your point, even if no one does do it, why repeal the protection? It's effort and time wasted just to create a potential for something bad to happen.

Even if you think this will never be abused, I don't see how it's being blown out of proportion, this is still bad.

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#67

Post by falcolas »

pythonaut_16 wrote: post #52
fowlerpower wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not the contents? What happens when most content is not over a secure connection such e.g. Over HTTP? Could they not inspect the content? It sure seems like they could. For most people most of the internet is still insecure.

I know for me personally I already assume anything over a non-HTTPS or non-secured protocol will be received and possibly read by anyone and everyone.

You forgot "and changed". Injected ads, injected JavaScript, replaced ads... This has been occurring, and without protections against it, it will continue to occur.

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#68

Post by edraferi »

I want a privacy first router. Does such a product exist?

Key features:

  - I pay a subscription for maintenance (so I'm not the product) say $10/mo

  - Automatically routes all traffic over a VPN.

  - Smart VPN bypass for performance-sensitive traffic like streaming video and gaming

  - Provides non-logging DNS service

  - Automatic advertisement blocking
For VPN, DNS, and adblock I want the option to use servers & block lists maintained by the paid service, augment them with my own, or use my own exclusively. Bonus points for rotating requests between providers.

Does such a product exist? I think I could hack together something similar using DD-WRT[1], but I'm confident the maintenance hassle will eventually outweigh my desire for privacy. #shutupandtakemymoney

[1] http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#69

Post by M_Grey »

zaroth wrote: post #63

Internet Provisers -- that's Google and Facebook, right? On a more serious note, people need to understand that every domain you visit, every query you search, every digital conversation you have, every number you call, every movie you watch or book you read, everything you buy, unless you take active measures to mask your identity that record is being retained by as many different people that can get their hands on…

More likely people will, without ever understanding any of this, become agitated and then over time... nothing they recognize will happen, nothing they can see will change. It will be even harder to get their attention next time...

Re: Disapproval of FCC regulations a significant blow against privacy protection

#70

Post by dragonwriter »

Clanan wrote: post #46

Tom Wheeler, former FCC chairman and cable/wireless lobbyist, fails to charitably address why his opponents did what they did. To Republicans and opponents of his FCC chairmanship, this was about regulatory authority, not "selling your data to ISPs". They believe the FTC, not the FCC, should be the main privacy regulator as it has in the past. They also contend that ISPs are already disallowed from scooping and selli…

> They believe the FTC, not the FCC, should be the main privacy regulator as it has in the past.

If they believed that, they would pass legislation to correct the law on which the court relied striking down FTC regulatory authority in this area and allow the FTC to actually do that; not doing that when reversing the FCC rules which mirrored the FTC rules which were struck down demonstrates that that is a pretext, not a genuine motivation.

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