These are the 23 Senators that introduced a bill to let telecoms sell your private internet history
Protection of your Internet history is up in the air thanks to new, pending legislation. A new bill coming before Senate aims to completely dismantle the FCC’s ability to enact data security or online privacy protections for consumers under the powers of the Congressional Review Act. Senate Joint Resolution (S.J.Res 34) was introduced by Arizona Senator Jeff Flake and cosponsored by 23 other Senators. Its goal is to remove all the hard-earned net neutrality regulations gained to protect your internet history from advertisers and and worse. Specifically, the FCC had been able to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from spying on your internet history, and selling what they gathered, without express permission. This legal protection on your internet history is currently under attack thanks to these 23 Senators and lots of ISP lobbying spend. While S.J.Res 34 has support from two dozen Republican Senators, Senators willing to champion the privacy of Americans’ internet history have also come out of the woodwork.
The House version of this bill is H.J.Res 86.
These 23 Senators want to let your internet history be sold
The list of 23 Senators cosponsoring this bill, including Senator Jeff Flake, is:
– John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)
– Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)
– Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
– John Boozman (R-Ark.)
– Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
– Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)
– John Cornyn (R-Texas)
– Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
– Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
– Deb Fischer (R-Neb.)
– Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
– Dean Heller (R-Nev.)
– James Inhofe (R-Okla.)
– Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.)
– Mike Lee (R-Utah)
– Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
– Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
– Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
– Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)
– Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.)
– John Thune (R-S.D.)
– Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)
– Jerry Moran (R-Kan.)
Some politicians understand that S.J.Res 34 is a step back for Internet privacy
Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee for a hearing about Oversight of the FCC. While online privacy was not much on the agenda, it was very much on the minds of many Senators that oppose the end of net neutrality. Afterwards, according to PC World’s Grant Gross, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said:
“I fear [the privacy rollback] is just a preview of coming attractions. Big broadband companies don’t want to give consumer privacy protections the attention they deserve.”
Senator Markey also issued a statement specifically against Senator Flake’s resolution blocking FCC regulation of ISPs:
“Consumers will have no ability to stop Internet service providers from invading their privacy and selling sensitive information about their health, finances, and children to advertisers, insurers, data brokers or others who can profit off of this personal information, all without their affirmative consent.”
In a separate statement, Hawaiian Senator Brian Schatz said:
“If this [resolution] is passed, neither the FCC nor the FTC will have clear authority when it comes to how Internet service providers protect consumers’ data privacy and security.”
The end goal of passing ISP regulation onto the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will require further Congressional action, another privacy damaging step that is inevitably coming this year. Private Internet Access is supporting the EFF in calling all Americans to heed the call: “Don’t let Congress Undermine Our Online Privacy.” When S.J.Res 34 comes to a vote, make sure to take note of which Senators vote which way. It is important to hold politicians accountable for their stances and their actions.
Editor’s note: Senator Ron Johnson is listed as a cosponsor twice by Senator Flake’s official announcement of S.J.Res 34 on his website. There are only 23 Senators sponsoring this bill.
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106 Comments
If you use OpenDNS, your ISP really doesn’t know anything about your online activity.
That is not true at all, just because you dont use their DNS servers, all traffic runs through their network, hence why your external IP resides inside your ISP’s subnet.
Sorry about posting info without additional info, the only way around this is to use a VPN connection with end to end encryption.
This is not true. Your ISP will still see your internet activity even if you use a different name server. Your computer goes through your modem and the next several hops belong to your ISP. They can track what your requested destination is.
I am shocked to see Rand Paul on that list. I liked him and his father. Now he can go to hell with Clinton.
Of course Rand Paul is on that list. This is exactly the kind of policy he advocates: removing regulations, even if those regulations protect people. Rand Paul doesn’t want the government meddling in your life. He also doesn’t want the government meddling with corporations to stop them from meddling in your life.
If this surprises you, then you never understood Rand Paul, his father, or the politicians like them.
And someone will offer a service that promises NOT to sell your data on all TOR routers for 5 dollars more a month…and people will buy it.
Thats how markets work.
But today you don’t get TOR routers because its more expensive.
And the govt sits on the backbone eavesdropping on your packets.
Rand Paul is consumer driven.
Govt protection isn’t always protective of technology.
ATT monopoly prevented new phones for over 50 years.
Packet encapsulation capability has existed since the 40s.
Lamar the actress holds the patent on it.
How can you be shocked, he is part of the party for the haves and don’t want others to have
The govt is NOT about you having that is for sure.
How about all these Republican sell outs can go to hell along with Paul Rand!
“He believes that the world is moving towards a better tomorrow, bit by bit by Bitcoin.”
I can’t take the author seriously now.
I think you meant this for another article.
It’s quoted from the author’s profile text.
Ad hominum attack much?
this isnt ad hominem; this is a criticism of ideologies. is it irrelevant to the article? kind of, however it is not ad hominem.
journalistic integrity is important, as bias in any direction on the authors part can (and unfortunately does) often lead to biased, incomplete, or downright deceitful reporting. the ideologies of an author are likely to lead them to suggest opinions, rather than report facts.
this article does suggest that readers hold opinions and take stances, which isnt very objectively-good reporting. i agree with the messages in the article, but they are quite obviously biased towards consumer-friendly regulations.
suggesting that the authors beliefs (in this case an assumed faith in decentralized currencies) influence their stance and the opinions they suggest is not ludicrous.
of course, this is assuming that piltdown means they cant take the author seriously because of their beliefs. they may be saying they cant take them seriously because ‘bit by bit by bitcoin’ is a tad bit corny.
“Journalistic integrity” is an awfully wide justification to attack the author rather than the content. That is exactly ad hominem. The author’s stance on bitcoin has no direct impact on the substance of the article.
Furthermore the author does state an opinion, but also provides primary sources, in particular the bill itself. Not all reporting must be objective.
Probably a lot of bullshit clogging the drain of the swamp. Hopefully will get cleared soon. Fucking vampires. As much as I hate Trump, he was right about Washington being full of special interests.
Under Obama, the FCC passed new rules to restrict Internet providers from sharing users information with 3rd parties without the users consent. However, Trump’s new FCC chairman has removed those restrictions. So much for draining the swamp…. http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0301/DOC-343702A1.pdf
Yep. It’s his bullshit clogging the drain.
Trump IS the swamp. He is corruption incarnate.
Trump is “the swamp’s” biggest defender.
You seriously need to read the bio of every single one of his cabinet pics, and then re-evaluate your perception that the swamp is being drained. There isn’t a single one of them who hasn’t worked for some type of special interest group in the past.
Lol. Sarcasm much? He’s the bullshit clogging the drain.
It’s hard for me to disseminate between sarcastic Trump comments and real ones because they all sound completely ridiculous to me, lol.
Totally understood. I feel sorry for comedians too. They literally can’t make the stuff up that comes out of Trump’s tweets and Spicer’s mouth.
Caveat: SNL has done an amazing job so far.
Dan Sullivan is from Alaska, not Arkansas. Unfortunately.
Only difference is that it’s colder in Alaska.
“If this [resolution] is passed, neither the FCC nor the FTC will have clear authority when it comes to how Internet service providers protect consumers’ data privacy and security.”