https://consumerist.com/2017/03/28/house-votes-to-allow-internet-service-providers-to-sell-share-your-personal-information/

House Votes To Allow Internet Service Providers To Sell, Share Your Personal Information

The new Federal Communications Commission’s rules intended to limit how companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and Charter can use internet customers’ sensitive personal information are effectively dead in the water, thanks to a House of Representatives vote today to kill the regulations, making sure internet service providers can use and sell user data.

The final vote was 215 to repeal the privacy rules with 205 votes to keep them in place. Voting was mostly along party lines, though 15 Republicans broke rank to vote against the resolution. No Democrats voted in its favor.

The GOP lawmakers that voted against the resolution were Justin Amash (MI), Mo Brooks (AL), Mike Coffman (CO), Warren Davidson (OH), John Duncan (TN), John Faso (NY), Garret Graves (LA), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA), Walter Jones (NC), Tom McClintock (CA), David Reichert (WA), Mark Sanford (SC), Elise Stefanik (NY), Kevin Yoder (KS), Lee Zeldin (NY).

The Senate has already approved this resolution, meaning it only awaits the signature of President Trump to undo the FCC regulations.

The rules, finalized in October by the FCC, effectively divide the data that your ISP has about you and your browsing habits into two categories.

The first category is sensitive data. ISPs would have been prevented from using the following information without your permission:
• Geographic location
• Children’s information
• Health information
• Financial information
• Social Security numbers
• Web browsing history
• App usage history
• The content of communications

The second category includes less-sensitive, but still personal data. ISPs would have been allowed to use this information, but would have been required to allow users the opportunity to opt out of having the following shared:

• Your name
• Your address
• Your IP address
• Your current subscription level
• Anything else not in the “opt in” bucket.

The rules were immediately opposed by ISPs and their lobbyists, who said the regulations were unfair because they did not place the same restriction on content companies Google and Netflix — while glossing over the fact that the FCC has no authority to regulate what Google and Netflix do with their user information.

This only affects people in the USA. Other countries may or may not already sell your data.

And there is a large difference between an ISP and Google. You can avoid using Google, but you can't avoid using your ISP. So giving Google your data tracks is a choice, but giving your ISP your data tracks is a necessity.

It is highly likely that other countries would follow suit, particularly when it comes to bilateral trade agreements which includes "privacy trade" in one of the clause. That's how USA type of trade and democracy works. Now telcos can sell my data to all insurance agencies, telemarketeers, content providers and MLM scammers as part of their legal revenue. Be prepared to receive 1-800 calls from India (supposedly from Austin, Texas) selling you some manhood enhancement pills in the middle of the night! Hahaha

ISPs have been doing so for a very long time. The aforementioned piece of legislation simply legalizes such a practice.

When some country even allows commercialization of its citizens' genetic information, selling privacy is no longer considered a bad practice. On the contrary, it is a lucrative business!

Refer to:

deCODE Iceland and Genetic Databanks

Controversies about Genetic Databanks and their Commercialization: Is There More to Learn from deCODE Genetics?

@Yong

talk about lucrative...

I think we should charge the telcos for commercializing our personal/sensitive information out in the open. They want business, we give them counter-business. That's how it should work.

system error wrote:

@Yong

It is "YONG". Upper-case letters make my handle more eye-catching!

system error wrote:

talk about lucrative... I think we should charge the telcos for commercializing our personal/sensitive information out in the open. They want business, we give them counter-business. That's how it should work.

Yes, we should. But how?

YONG wrote:

system error wrote: @Yong It is "YONG". Upper-case letters make my handle more eye-catching! system error wrote: talk about lucrative... I think we should charge the telcos for commercializing our personal/sensitive information out in the open. They want business, we give them counter-business. That's how it should work. Yes, we should. But how?

well.. lemme see...

but you're the genius here. You tell me how. Then we split the money.

system error wrote:

... but you're the genius here.

No, I am not. In fact, I am a loser ... because I back up my files regularly! (Refer to the World Backup Day thread.)

I am sure I never gave my SIN or my Bank Account numbers to my ISP.
They know my address, phone(s), email, name, age, sites I visit - that's about it.

AsmGuru62 wrote:

I am sure I never gave my SIN or my Bank Account numbers to my ISP.

Did you ever email anyone with that information? Did you ever enter them into a webform sent over HTTP? If so, then you sent that information directly to your ISP in the clear.

AsmGuru62 wrote:

I am sure I never gave my SIN or my Bank Account numbers to my ISP. They know my address, phone(s), email, name, age, sites I visit - that's about it.

If u ever paid with credit / debit card, they'll whore it up too to the highest bidder.

Yep, the debit card numbers got copied few times, but I got a call next day or so from the bank to replace the card.