What happens online now goes to the highest bidder
WASHINGTON — The GOP just put all of your personal information collected by broadband providers — from online purchases, to porn website visits and even the movements you make in your home — up for sale.
Consider it a gift to the Democrats who now have a campaignseason line of attack millennials can love.
Yesterday’s party-line House vote to repeal Obama-era broadband privacy rules no longer requires internet providers to get consent from consumers before using personal information like geolocation, financial and medical information and children’s activities for advertising and marketing.
That repeal, approved by Senate Republicans last week and now headed to the White House for President Trump’s expected signature, even applies to the naughty website cookies lingering on your iPad — even if you use “private browsing mode.” Because your internet provider knows all.
“We’re going to turn this issue into a major debate in our country between now and 2018,” U.S. Sen. Edward Markey told the Herald. “All of the Republicans who voted against protecting the privacy of Americans — as we are debating the invasion of the privacy of Americans by the Russians — are setting themselves up for a huge, historic debate over how much privacy every American family is entitled to.”
Though the issue drew a large amount of chatter on Twitter in recent days, where lawmakers, groups like the ACLU and even some internet providers who opposed the measure railed against the bill, the issue has been largely overshadowed by other news under the Capitol dome. The result: the outrage came too late.
“The Republicans brought this up for a vote (in the Senate) on the day that the House was debating the repeal of the Affordable Care Act,” said Markey. “So it got lost in all of the commotion.”
U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, who voted along with the entire Bay State delegation against the measure, pointed to the plethora of devices, from dolls to televisions that use body heat-detecting technology to what people are doing in their own homes — like eating dinner or cuddling, or whatever — to tailor advertising to them.
“And every one of you is sitting there with your mouth open that this might happen in your world. That’s what this bill will allow,” the Somerville Democrat said on the House floor. “What are you thinking?”
Congressional Republicans and the White House said the repeal was just good business. The privacy rules applied to internet service providers but not to other internet players like Google, creating an uneven playing field that needed leveling. But for Democrats, the message is much clearer — and it’s campaign-ad ready.