trump, US, h-1b

Making everyone’s browser history fair game for ISPs to record and sell, President Trump has put his signature to the senate resolution that called for a reversal of the protection law introduced last year, that would have ensured that ISPs ask for permission before selling sensitive data like browser histories to third parties.

With this, ISPs can officially sell off the data they accumulate by creeping into the browser histories of people like you and me. It is also a major setback to privacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which were staunch supporters of the Federal Communications Commission when it sought to protect the users from being preyed upon by ISPs.

Okay, maybe I am painting too grim a picture here. You won’t exactly be jailed for visiting websites that are banned in you country, right?  However, if you cared for being able to browse the Internet in peace, without having to be scared of prying eyes looking into the details, well bad news. Meanwhile, Trump’s signature to the resolution does not come as a surprise. After all, he hasn’t exactly been a very strong proponent of privacy rights, has he? Indeed, the White House had all but rushed to the senate to sign the resolution there and then.

Meanwhile, many ISPs had also called out to privacy groups to stop ignoring facts. Such as the fact that the privacy law had it come into operation, would not have aplied to the likes of Facebook.

As per Bob Quinn, a senior executive vice president at AT&T:

If the government believes that location data is sensitive and requires more explicit consumer disclosures and permissions, then those protections should apply to all players that have access to location data, whether an ISP or edge player or search engine.

Meanwhile, several telecom companies have also spoken about the issue and said that regardless of the government’s stand on the matter, they would continue to protect user privacy on their own initiative.

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