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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

#81

Post by bullsandabears »

xienze wrote: post #73
falcolas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were some ISPs which were selling people's data prior to this order (Verizon was one, IIRC, and a few others were actively injecting ads and JS into non-TLS traffic), and many more were considering it. Yes, we've "essentially" just gone back in time, but it's not a positive regression.

> Yes, we've "essentially" just gone back in time, but it's not a positive regression. I agree, but with the way this thing has been reported you'd think we've gone back to the dark ages rather than where we were just prior to the election. I don't recall a lot of discussion on HN about which proxy to use because "OMG my ISP is going to sell my browsing history!!!" back then. That's all I'm getting at. Wondering why…

Your wondering why was just answered succinctly in the comment you posted your reply to:

> There were some ISPs which were selling people's data prior to this order (Verizon was one, IIRC, and a few others were actively injecting ads and JS into non-TLS traffic), and many more were considering it.

edit: spelling

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

#82

Post by ericd »

jonjohn84 wrote: post #13

I feel like this isn't going to go anywhere but I'm still tempted to contribute: https://www.gofundme.com/BuyCongressData

Why on Earth would this be set at $500M, and why on Earth would people trust a random person on the internet with that?

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

#83

Post by milesf »

Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. I've watched the tech community battle back many times: PGP, SCO Unix vs Linux, WebStandards.org, etc.

How do we fight this using software? Remember that many of the innovations came from single individuals. Is there a way to have a fully private, fast communication between two computers when we know everything we do is being saved and analyzed? Because that's all the Internet really is, whether one of those computers is a web server and the other a browser or any other infinite combination.

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

#84

Post by jaySmith »

One idea that I have been running through my head for awhile is a Tor like onion router that could be funded by a special cryptocurrency. This would mean each relay would get some amount of money for passing a packet on to the next relay. Ultimately this would solve two problems with Tor: speed (as it is paid there would likely be more relays with faster connection) and issues with spam (DOS over the network would cost a lot more.) Obviously it would suffer from some anonymity issues that would need to be solved as you are paying and it could be traced. I don't know if this idea would solve the issue in this case but I figured I would mention it.

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

#85

Post by JumpCrisscross »

dragonwriter wrote: post #70
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…

> they would pass legislation to correct the law on which the court relied striking down FTC regulatory authority in this area

The FCC rule is being struck down using the Congressional Review Act [1]. CRA provides "an expedited legislative process" [2]. Giving the FTC authority in this area would require passing a real law. (That said, I agree with you regrind the explanation of motive.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Review_Act

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20150402230759/http://assets.ope...

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

#86

Post by fastest963 »

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/ )

Just because you're not using their DNS servers doesn't mean they still don't see the DNS requests as its sent through their pipes and log them.

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

#87

Post by Navarr »

xienze wrote: post #73
falcolas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were some ISPs which were selling people's data prior to this order (Verizon was one, IIRC, and a few others were actively injecting ads and JS into non-TLS traffic), and many more were considering it. Yes, we've "essentially" just gone back in time, but it's not a positive regression.

> Yes, we've "essentially" just gone back in time, but it's not a positive regression. I agree, but with the way this thing has been reported you'd think we've gone back to the dark ages rather than where we were just prior to the election. I don't recall a lot of discussion on HN about which proxy to use because "OMG my ISP is going to sell my browsing history!!!" back then. That's all I'm getting at. Wondering why…

Because it is an assault on civil liberties?

The status quo was wrong, which is why we passed the law in the first place.

The difference, of course, is:

* [thing isn't thought about, so isn't made illegal - making it implicitly legal] * Hey, this thing they're doing is bad - now that we know about it, we should make it illegal. * Repeal: Hey, let them do this thing.

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

#88

Post by tcfunk »

M_Grey wrote: post #69
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...

It's the slow boil

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

#89

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#90

Post by serafinlion »

It's a repeal of the regulation put in place by the FCC last year October prohibiting ISPs (such as Verizon, AT&T) to sell their customers' data. This shows how strong the lobbyist groups are if this very recent item was taken on this quickly -- which makes sense if you think about that it's a $156+ billion industry in the US alone.

The regulation from last October required to ask for expressive consent to sell the following:

- Precise geo-location - Children’s information - Health Information - Financial Information - Social Security Numbers (wait, they actually sold those?!) - Web Browsing History - App Usage History - The content of communication

With the new regulation, passing all of these information on is fair game again. Which is absolute fucking shocking!

Btw, for anyone interested, I wrote a blog post about the implications of the new regulation for ISPs when it was first passed -- just make sure to read it as the opposite of what I wrote: https://blog.datawallet.io/broad-band-providers-take-a-hit-b...

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