Played for a sucker
Republicans sell out the American people by rolling back online privacy rules.
Sometimes passing a law is a bit like playing poker. If you can’t see the sucker at the table, it’s you.
Well, we’ve been looking around the table after Congress rolled back an Obama-era regulation that prevented internet service providers, ISPs, from selling your private information without your permission, and we’ve got some bad news for the American people.
Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been played for a sucker. Every website you visit, every internet search, even your geolocation is up for grabs.
Members of Congress get to do a favor for their big-money donors. Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and other ISPs get to make cash by selling your information. And you just have to live with it.
Plenty of Donald Trump voters have reacted with outrage after watching Republicans in Congress pass the bill, according to a CNN report. They expected Trump to protect their online privacy from big corporations, but the White House has said it will sign off on the change.
Don’t like it? You probably don’t have much of a choice. Less than 15 percent of Americans have more than two options for basic broadband internet service, according to the Federal Communications Commission. A majority of Americans only have a single option if they want to buy a high-speed service. That’s not a market. That’s a monopoly.
The communications industry didn’t always have a free hand with your personal information. Telephone companies, for example, can’t sell your call records. But today’s telecoms want special treatment — and one party in Washington is willing to give them exactly what they want. Every single Texas Republican in Congress voted to strip Americans of their online privacy. Every single Texas Democrat voted to protect it.
Why did Ted Cruz and his pals sell you out? Just follow the cash. The Texas politicians who voted for the privacy rollback received nearly $1 million in contributions from telecom-related industries, individuals or political action committees, Chronicle digital producer Fernando Ramirez wrote this week. That’s not exactly penny slots, and telecoms are going to keep greasing the wheels to get what they want. It doesn’t stop with your private information — telecoms want to own the whole internet by eliminating a policy known as “net neutrality.”
It’s complicated, but the telecoms basically are trying to replace the freeway of the Internet with their own private toll roads. Be prepared to pay extra or suffer with slower connection speeds if you want to look at websites outside of your ISP’s preferred network.
The brilliance of the internet is that it creates the ultimate free market by having everyone compete on the same playing field. Silicon Valley startups would be strangled in the cradle if established players could buy preferential treatment from telecoms.
Congress and President Trump are gambling with the future of the internet. Consider the privacy rollback their first ill-advised bet.