Why Do Republicans Want ISPs to Spy on Their Customers

Just out of curiosity, where do you think this magic voter targeting database Obama apparently owns comes from? All this does is allow ISP's to compete with Google and Facebook which already know everything about you because their ad services track your activities all over the internet whether you are logged into them or not.

 

First of all my post was not about a voter targeting database set up by Obama. I have not information concerning what you call a magic database.

The comment about competing with Google and Facebook is a bogus claim. I don't have to use Google or Facebook. I have access to one broadband provider I have to use.

 

Are you going to cheer Trump if he vetos it?

 

I do not disagree with you.

What I do disagree with is that, somehow, the repeal of this legislation is an invasion of my privacy that did not already exist. There IS NO privacy on the internet; never has been, never will be. And the prospect that my ISP can now collect and sell browsing history too, something that a multi-billion dollar industry has been doing for decades, should not be much of a real concern to most people, politics aside.

 

Your post was about selling your personal data. Google and facebook already do. It is the basis for voter targeting among other things. You don't have to be on google or youtube or facebook for them to be able to track you and acquire information about you. I am not sure you fully understand how pervasive information gathering based on internet use is or how much website hosting is done by google. Google specifically is the devil when it comes to privacy. All this legislation does is allow ISP's to compete with them in the data gathering and selling market.

 

This is the classical error Bastiat pointed to. Independent ISPs can set their own policies, and consumers can catch wind of them. Consumers then get to pick and choose. And let's be real here - they're not selling browser history for blackmailing purposes - if they did, they'd be complicit in a major crime and liable. They're selling browser history for advertising purposes - and making money off of that allows them to reduce their prices. Potentially, you could have an ISP that offers the same exact speed but charges more because they promise to keep all your browser history private, whereas a different ISP sells it but is able to offer lower rates. Some people really don't care about online advertisers knowing what kinds of things they're into, some do.

 

No surprise this is being framed as an attack on privacy. It's what Liberals do to pull the wool over their constituents' eyes.. Until February 26, 2015, the FTC owned the responsibility for keeping us safe online. On that day, the FCC reclassified broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service for no other reason but to take over the internet by cramming through their notion of Net Neutrality. The only reason we are debating this is that the FCC under Obama was all ideology and no abilities ,,, with the exception of Ajit Pai who had objected to the takeover. Being in the minority, he had to hold his nose and live with it. Here he is now on his commission's rule as chairman:

STATEMENT OF FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
ON CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL OF FCC BROADBAND PRIVACY REGULATIONS​

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2017. — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement regarding today’s passage of a congressional resolution of disapproval of the FCC’s broadband privacy regulations:

“Last year, the Federal Communications Commission pushed through, on a party-line vote, privacy regulations designed to benefit one group of favored companies over another group of disfavored companies. Appropriately, Congress has passed a resolution to reject this approach of picking winners and losers before it takes effect.

“It is worth remembering that the FCC’s own overreach created the problem we are facing today. Until 2015, the Federal Trade Commission was protecting consumers very effectively, policing every online company’s privacy practices consistently and initiating numerous enforcement actions. However, two years ago, the FCC stripped the FTC of its authority over Internet service providers. At the time, I strongly opposed usurping the FTC, and the FCC’s struggles to address the privacy issue over the past couple of years (along with its refusal to recognize consumers’ uniform expectation of privacy) has only strengthened that view.

“Moving forward, I want the American people to know that the FCC will work with the FTC to ensure that consumers’ online privacy is protected though a consistent and comprehensive framework. In my view, the best way to achieve that result would be to return jurisdiction over broadband providers’ privacy practices to the FTC, with its decades of experience and expertise in this area.”

 

I don't thing this is a question of liberals making a false claim. Anyone not understanding that this issue is a privacy issue and not a liberal v. conservative issue should visit The Electronic Frontier Foundation and educate themselves. The EFF was fighting just as hard to protect civil liberties when the Democrats controlled the White House as they are now.

 

"Why Do Republicans Want ISPs to Spy on Their Customers"

the sad thing is, these are the same folks that created the patriot act and complain about Russian phone calls to Americans being spied on