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Another Blow Against Privacy

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
If you aren't using all the latest techniques to scramble your internet activities, here's another reason to start. Fools in Congress have repealed a law that required internet service providers to have permission from buyers to share personal information with third parties. It's unlikely that the current president will veto it, given its pro-corporate, anti-consumer protection interests.

"The law, passed last October days before President Trump was elected, and due to take effect by the end of this year, would have forced ISPs to get clear permission from users to share personal data such as "precise geo-location, financial information, health information, children’s information, social security numbers, web browsing history, app usage history and the content of communications”.

Furthermore, ISPs would have been ordered to allow their customers the ability to opt out of the sharing of less sensitive information, like an email address."
Anger as US internet privacy law scrapped - BBC News

Now, I wouldn't be voting for any of the current reps for my state anyway given their other agendas, but this is one more reason to give them the boot come next election cycle. Time to write some representatives some nastygrams, right folks?
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
Now, I wouldn't be voting for any of the current reps for my state anyway given their other agendas, but this is one more reason to give them the boot come next election cycle. Time to write some representatives some nastygrams, right folks?
The downside to this is that politicians, as a group, are among the most computer/internet illiterates going, so don't expect a lot.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
If you aren't using all the latest techniques to scramble your internet activities, here's another reason to start. Fools in Congress have repealed a law that required internet service providers to have permission from buyers to share personal information with third parties. It's unlikely that the current president will veto it, given its pro-corporate, anti-consumer protection interests.

"The law, passed last October days before President Trump was elected, and due to take effect by the end of this year, would have forced ISPs to get clear permission from users to share personal data such as "precise geo-location, financial information, health information, children’s information, social security numbers, web browsing history, app usage history and the content of communications”.

Furthermore, ISPs would have been ordered to allow their customers the ability to opt out of the sharing of less sensitive information, like an email address."
Anger as US internet privacy law scrapped - BBC News

Now, I wouldn't be voting for any of the current reps for my state anyway given their other agendas, but this is one more reason to give them the boot come next election cycle. Time to write some representatives some nastygrams, right folks?

I'd probably sue for royality rights in using my name to gain profit without my explicit permission. Any lawyers want to take the case?
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
If you thought that sales calls were annoying before, just wait until you get calls from sales reps who know every thing about you. The best part is that employers no longer need to require your facebook login. Now there will be companies which provide detailed information about every opinion you've ever held and every friend you've ever had.
 

Nous

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
If you aren't using all the latest techniques to scramble your internet activities, here's another reason to start.
Question for anyone and everyone: What are your best recommendations for "scrambling one's internet activities"? (Other than good and often-changed passwords,)
 

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
If you thought that sales calls were annoying before, just wait until you get calls from sales reps who know every thing about you. The best part is that employers no longer need to require your facebook login. Now there will be companies which provide detailed information about every opinion you've ever held and every friend you've ever had.

I stopped participating on mainstream social media on my real name a long time ago. :D There are no accounts to see... if I use those accounts they're connected to via vpn or TOR, etc...

Which I recommend everyone to do, these days...
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
I stopped participating on mainstream social media on my real name a long time ago. :D There are no accounts to see... if I use those accounts they're connected to via vpn or TOR, etc...

Which I recommend everyone to do, these days...

Unfortunately, this move makes such measures much less meaningful, because now the ISP's themselves will sell your data off. Before if you voluntarily avoided corporate data gathering sites (what most people seem to call social media sites), you would have a bit more privacy. When the ISPs themselves are co-opted, there is no way around it. I'm not sure that VPNs work against that either, but I wouldn't be the person to ask about that sort of thing.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
I stopped participating on mainstream social media on my real name a long time ago. :D There are no accounts to see... if I use those accounts they're connected to via vpn or TOR, etc...

Which I recommend everyone to do, these days...
Tor. I haven't tried it, because I suspect it to be slow.
 

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Unfortunately, this move makes such measures much less meaningful, because now the ISP's themselves will sell your data off. Before if you voluntarily avoided corporate data gathering sites (what most people seem to call social media sites), you would have a bit more privacy. When the ISPs themselves are co-opted, there is no way around it. I'm not sure that VPNs work against that either, but I wouldn't be the person to ask about that sort of thing.

To ID you basically they need:

1) A cookie (tracking)
2) A consistent IP address (your "last hop", normally your router/cable modem/whatever)
3) Consistant name/data/whatever in lieu of that

TOR browser doesn't accept cookies, doesn't allow them to see your IP, and the rest is up to you. Personally, I recommend you start migrating most accounts to ghost accounts with BS names because you're just gonna get it at some point -- either from them, or the hackers. I play a lot of online games and don't use real names at all on them, nor do I pay with a credit card for that reason. You never really know who is getting the info, so if you wouldn't give it to a complete stranger I'd say keep it offline.

PS - the worst offender is google, most sites install a google tracking cookie... you can nearly defeat all tracking just by avoiding google cookies/sites... Try duckduckgo or other alternative searches...

PPS - Use Tor for anything controversial, normal surfing is safe for the rest. Do not use credit cards or anything like that on TOR, the endpoints can monitor communication.
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
If anyone is running FireFox, go get NoScript as an add-on. It lets you control how much a given website can run HTML scripts, and how many 3rd party sites can run at all, on any given page.

Most data-gathering is done via these third party sites, so blocking scripts from running on these blocks most data-gathering engines.
 

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
If anyone is running FireFox, go get NoScript as an add-on. It lets you control how much a given website can run HTML scripts, and how many 3rd party sites can run at all, on any given page.

Most data-gathering is done via these third party sites, so blocking scripts from running on these blocks most data-gathering engines.

This stuff is already in TOR, so I just recommend TOR because the default settings are safe for anyone and there is nothing to set up.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
Unfortunately, this move makes such measures much less meaningful, because now the ISP's themselves will sell your data off. Before if you voluntarily avoided corporate data gathering sites (what most people seem to call social media sites), you would have a bit more privacy. When the ISPs themselves are co-opted, there is no way around it. I'm not sure that VPNs work against that either, but I wouldn't be the person to ask about that sort of thing.
In addition to what MM said, if you were to use a virtual network that offered to encrypt the data between your computer and themselves, that would hide your surfing at your end. On the other hand, you should not do this with information that will be valuable for more than a year, such as multi-million dollar presentations or sales data etc. If you are that expensive a target, your data stream can be recorded and then decoded years later when the current encryption gets easier to break or weaknesses are found in it. If you are just dealing with day-to-day stuff, then an encrypted virtual network will prevent eavesdropping by your IP.

Visiting RF (which is https encrypted) hides some data. It will not hide images you click on here or the name of the site. The name of the site is in plain text, so your IP can add it to a database of sites your IP address has visited. Your username will probably not be visible now, but they may already have that information from times when the site was not https and was plain http. The site also reveals some info to advertisers, but nothing personal. The IP provider could change that, making a deal with doubleclick for example. Basically the IP provider is getting much more value from such a deal than the cost of providing you with internet access, or so I think. If not you then from some of their high-roller subscribers.
 

4consideration

*
Premium Member
Unfortunately, this move makes such measures much less meaningful, because now the ISP's themselves will sell your data off. Before if you voluntarily avoided corporate data gathering sites (what most people seem to call social media sites), you would have a bit more privacy. When the ISPs themselves are co-opted, there is no way around it. I'm not sure that VPNs work against that either, but I wouldn't be the person to ask about that sort of thing.
This doesn't give the ISP's permission to do anything they couldn't do before.

From what I have been able to find, what was passed by the House did not repeal any law. The article (edit: in the OP) was wrong in calling it a law.

What was passed referred to an FCC Ruling. The legislators are voting on not implementing. It is not repealing any laws, or giving permission to do anything that couldn't be done by law before.

It sounds bad because it written to sound like it is giving Carte Blanche to ISP's, or that it was repealing some "law" that had previously been debated in Congress. It's not. From what I understand the Ruling has not even been implemented, so nothing we had relied on has been lost.

Here's what was passed:
Text - S.J.Res.34 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to "Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services".

Here is the FCC Ruling it is referring to: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-12-02/pdf/2016-28006.pdf
 
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