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The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#31

Post by toss1941 »

pnathan wrote: post #19

This, right here, is the consequence of the withdrawal from politics many geeks advocated very strongly in an earlier time. "Everything is corrupt, it doesn't matter"... turns out to only be a viable philosophy when things mostly work well enough . What we have in protections and freedoms were purchased through a ton of hard work by prior generations: the liberty to slack and think that it just works ok is a nice sid…

I always interpreted that resignation as "both sides are terrible, so I'm going to keep voting for my side". I wonder how many people really felt strong enough about politics to claim both sides are equally bad and then decided not to vote on that basis alone.

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#32

Post by dfar1 »

I never cared too much for privacy, but that's one step too far. Lawmakers probably don't understand how this makes them a target, and how their own information will be accessible. Hopefully this will create a market for ISPs that want to protect you. I see VPN markets growing even more.

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#33

Post by curiousgal »

malchow wrote: post #11
vvanders wrote: post #8

As someone who grew up during the early days of the internet I don't know of any other way to describe this than utterly depressing. The internet was supposed to be this bastion of knowledge, information and free exchange of ideas. Now it's just heading towards another avenue for large-organizations monetize the individual.

...he posted, on Hacker News, a bastion of knowledge and information.

Your point is valid but I wish you'd framed it better.

Granted, the internet will indeed remain a bastion of knowledge and information but we shouldn't have to look over our shoulders when taking advantage of that.

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#34

Post by AndrewDP »

The underlying argument here is there is no difference between say Google and Verizon: the customer has to opt in (or pay) for both. And from a free market (aka conservative) economic perspective if this is a concern shared by the population, someone will offer it as a service that people will pay for (a VPN tax if you will).

This is an unfortunate example where government is not set up to address concerns of today's environment. They are trying to apply legal constructs of 20-50 years ago to a quickly changing age. And while you can argue whether the prior administration did the right thing legislating in this environment, the one thing they did was understand that access to the Internet should be a right as opposed to a privilege. Like education, access to 911, etc. As more services move exclusively online, this fundamental access question only becomes a greater concern.

If individuals aren't guaranteed access nor have any protections online, then we are heading into a very dangerous area (if the only way to lodge a claim against your internet provider is online, then they will know what you are doing).

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#36

Post by [deleted] »

bigphishy wrote: post #25
hprotagonist wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

given the fact that deep packet inspection is real, to what extent will this actually help?

Your post clearly enforces my suspicion that comments on hackernews have increasingly become infected with users who do not know of what they speak, and do not clearly think before they type.

[deleted]

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#37

Post by skylark »

callinyouin wrote: post #17

Does anyone know if this works retroactively? Is every data-hungry company soon going to know all of our past browsing behavior?

My understanding is that this repeals a law which was passed at the end of the Obama administration which never actually went into effect. If that's the case, it's already been happening - this bill just brought the issue front and center.

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#38

Post by lettergram »

marvindanig wrote: post #4

Before we jump in a shock and talk about the TFW political disaster there is happening in DC at the moment I want to ask a question: Is there a simple guide or steps that I can follow to make myself anonymous? I know there is TOR and VPNs, how can I go about setting it up?

I think it's time that we as a community really start putting effort into security. Making tools that people can use is so important, Tor is not really a plug and play system. If Grandma can't do it, then it's not good enough.

This is pretty much the only way to ensure any remote privicy (sometimes).

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#39

Post by doctorshady »

rinon wrote: post #30
doctorshady wrote: post #3

It's a bit disappointing to see that aside from a few abstained votes, everybody just chose to vote along party lines. Do these people just rubber stamp a bill because there's a D or an R next to it? Even if it meant more nay votes for the bill, I really wish we had representatives that vote based on critical thought rather than what their friends were doing. I mean, as long as I'm dreaming too, we should give assemb…

I don't know that much about the inner workings of Congress, but I'm guessing that it might be because reps who vote against party lines won't get support for their own pet projects later on?

Maybe. Could be why some people chose to abstain rather than vote against the party.
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