Friday, March 31, 2017

Republicans Sold Off Your Browsing History Privacy; You Can Help Expose Theirs


As a followup, for those who want to pursue the issue, here's a listing of the Republicans in the House and Senate who voted to strip away Internet privacy protections this past Tuesday (S.J. Res. 34). Briefly, here's what the vandals did:
In a party-line vote, House Republicans freed Internet service providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast of protections approved just last year that had sought to limit what companies could do with information such as customer browsing habits, app usage history, location data and Social Security numbers. The rules also had required providers to strengthen safeguards for customer data against hackers and thieves. 
One enterprising person, Adam McElhaney, is looking to give these nasty slugs some of their own medicine for their efforts to turn over your privacy rights to ISPs:
Before the bill passed Tuesday, McElhaney created SearchInternetHistory.com, a website that aims to use the bill’s new power to crowdfund for the browsing histories of its biggest supporters. Currently, the website shows a poll for the first four possible targets: Blackburn, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. 
“I think everyone is targeting Marsha Blackburn and Paul Ryan right now on the site,” McElhaney told The Daily Beast. 
McElhaney insists this isn’t a joke. And it better not be: Search Internet History’s GoFundMe page had surpassed $100,000 at press time. 
Go fund him!

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