Privacy on the internet just took a serious hit. Yesterday, the Senate voted to repeal broadband privacy rules that protected internet users from ISPs. According to Techcrunch, the FCC rule severely limited how much private information ISPs could collect from you, but after a 50 to 48 vote in the Senate, that probably will not be in the case anymore.
“If signed by the President, this law would repeal the FCC’s widely-supported broadband privacy framework, and eliminate the requirement that cable and broadband providers offer customers a choice before selling their sensitive, personal information," said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in a statement.
The resolution was proposed using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which the GOP is using to repeal federal regulations that they contested late in Obama’s presidency. In other words, the Republicans have the House and Congress, and they’re using that to take away important protections from people, like the right to not have your personal information sold to advertisers and to keep your private information private.
There’s no telling how much personal information ISPs will be able to collect and sell to third parties without consent. The list is just beginning at location, financial, healthcare and browsing data, according to BGR. And the worse part is, since the resolution was proposed using the CRA, once the repeal is signed by Trump (which is very likely), the FCC will be outlawed from creating similar privacy regulations. Once we lose it, it’s gone.
Chalk up one more victory for the Trump Administration and one more loss for consumers.