Last week, the US senate voted to let Internet service providers (ISPs) sell or share users’ web browsing history without their explicit consent. Such action overturned the privacy rules regulated by Federal Communications Commission in October. Under the previous rule, ISPs would need consumers’ permission to share or sell their web browsing data to a third party such as advertisers or big data companies. Now the vote result has headed to the house. Once it’s approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the US President Donald Trump, ISPs including AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast would be able to make more profit from these data collected from their users.
Why should you care?
Once the rule is passed, whoever gets your data would know:
- what you purchase
- where you browse
- what you watch online
- where are you going for your vacation
- and much more…
Isn’t that scary?
And it would be more difficult to pass strict privacy rules in the future.
So, what can you do?
There are a few actions you can take:
– If you use Internet Explorer, change the security and privacy setting to high.
– If you use Firefox, turn on the “do not track” function.
– Chrome users, you can dig into the encryption option while signed in, and also check the box of “Send a “Do Not Track” request with your browsing traffic”.
– Opera users, you have the options above, plus a free built-in VPN to hide your real IP.
– Use private browsing mode or go incognito.
– Use VPN on your phone to encrypt your data and remove your footprints. Download VPN
No matter this rule eventually gets approval or not, no matter it happens in the United States or anywhere else, your privacy is always your own property. Take action to protect your privacy and don’t let it be open for sale!