ISP Regulations Repealed — Your Browsing Data Now Available to Highest Bidder
Yesterday, April 3, 2017, President Trump signed a law repealing ISP regulations on selling consumer’s browsing data. The law is not going to take effect until December of 2017. Once the law does go into effect, ISPs will have the authorization to sell their customer’s browsing data to the highest bidder. Trump believes this will help smaller ISPs be competitive with online giants like Facebook and Google.
However, there are concerns regarding user privacy after the law is implemented. PC Matic’s cyber security expert, Dodi Glenn, made the following statement to Tech Republic,
“The difference is that a person can refuse to use Google or Facebook, and not risk their privacy. In the case of an ISP gathering the data, there is no choice other than don’t use the internet.”
Never using the internet seems a bit extreme. Perhaps there is an alternative solution to maintain a level of privacy. Glenn believes there is. Virtual Private Networks. He states,
“I believe the usage of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) will increase exponentially, due to this legislation. These servers will be used by consumers and business professionals to route their traffic to offshore locations, where their privacy is maintained at much higher standards. By using a VPN, the ISP can only see that their customer connected to another server, but not the websites they have visited.”
Techlicious also shares in the belief that VPNs could be a legitimate solution to enhancing your browsing privacy after the new law is implemented. Learn more about their thoughts on the benefits and limitations of VPNs here.
Thoughts?
What are your thoughts on Trump’s repeal of ISP regulations? Drop a comment below sharing your thoughts.
