FCC Internet Privacy Reg canceled- good or bad?

[TexasJohnBoy]

https://www.torproject.org/is your friend. VPNs are your friend. https://pi-hole.net/ is your friend.

Then again, if you're using any free services (google, yahoo, facebook, microsoft) or pay services (amazon, bn.com, ebay), then it's not AT&T that you really need to be worried about. And Tor/VPN/I2P/whatever else wont shield your habits when YOU are using these services. And you don't even actually have to use the service for it to track you.

Oh wait, we all use those all the time. Anyone ever actually read that EULA that you click Agree to every time they ask you?

Ever notice how if you search for, say, Generators at home depot, then you get banner ads and amazon suggestions at Amazon? Or how amazon will email you? I've noticed that if I ever hit the 5.11 website from my phone -- which I have NEVER logged into the site from -- I will get emails saying "Hey, we noticed you looked at these, take a look at these other tacticool things we thought you might like"

[strogg]

I'm with most of the people here who think the canceled regulation is next to meaningless.

Also, I'm in the camp of "I've got nothing to hide, but I like my privacy nonetheless." At the same time, I won't bother using Tor or a VPN as a personal preference. There is so much data collection out there that there's pretty much no more expectation of privacy in the digital world, or even the real physical world. There are almost 325,000,000 people in the US alone. The way I see it, as long as I don't stand out, the odds of some entity taking aim at me in a negative way is virtually zero. Thus, I won't bother going through hoops and hurdles just to get a modicum of privacy.

The only precautions I take are just those that will protect my financial and personal safety directly. Otherwise, if some wiseguys decide that I like listening to Avril Lavigne, they can go ahead and do whatever they want with that info. They can put it on a giant, flashing billboard off PGBT for all I care.

[SRVVR]

OK, from another point of view....

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6039 ... t-all-bad/

That's a fairly decent representation of the facts. What is most concerning is summed up in the last sentence, "...we can only hope that a more consistent approach to privacy might prevail in the future." I have no faith in this government to come up with something that would increase the protections around personal privacy, online or not.

I've been an avid user of various encryption technologies, so I'm watching the far more dubious efforts to dismantle that closely as it is being openly attacked. The passage of these bills, as stated, only stopped one effort to increase privacy protections, we've effectively not lost anything, though it doesn't remove the sting much. The attack on encryption has far worse consequences with minimal rewards, and no, the pros do not even come close to justifying the cons.

[philip964]

What I find troubling is not that this has been passed, it is that it has been passed soon out of the gate.

Think of all the things congress can work on a pass and this is one of the first few bills brought to the President.

Really. Why?

Is this part of the drain the swamp program, or was it something supported by big donors?

[zmcgooga]

I don't really understand the sudden outrage over this. The law that started the protection of data was only signed in OCT/NOV of 2016, so it's only been in effect 4/5 months and before that were was all the concern??

I'm not a fan of data harvesting. I'd be more sympathetic to the mock outrage if people weren't voluntarily providing:
- information on where they travel and shop to their credit card companies
- information on where, when, and how fast they drive to their EZPASS entity
- information on what they eat, how many are in their family, and whether they're pregnant to their grocery stores
- information on their medical condition, diseases, and person issues to every medical facility, pharmacy, insurance company, and employer
- information on who they write to, why, and every other aspect of their life to their "free" email provider and Cortana

If one is going to be outraged, be consistently outraged.

[parabelum]

Bravo for yet again chipping away at our liberty. Very conservative indeed.

If BO would have pushed this, boy, we'd be flipping chairs over. But you know now, it's different. Free market thingy and such...dems bad...repubs good...

[Soccerdad1995]

Bravo for yet again chipping away at our liberty. Very conservative indeed.

If BO would have pushed this, boy, we'd be flipping chairs over. But you know now, it's different. Free market thingy and such...dems bad...repubs good...

Here, we are talking about privacy infringement by private entities, and the government not interfering. I'm not sure how this is different than allowing business owners to restrict our RKBA in their stores? In both cases, we have the option to stop doing business with the companies that are infringing on our rights. Sure, it might not be "convenient". We might not have a ton of other options. And there is even a possibility that we might have to do without a non-essential product or service. But we have the right to vote with our dollars in both cases.

At least in this case the government is not helping the business to do the infringement, unlike with 30.06 signs.

[Soccerdad1995]

I don't really understand the sudden outrage over this. The law that started the protection of data was only signed in OCT/NOV of 2016, so it's only been in effect 4/5 months and before that were was all the concern??

I'm not a fan of data harvesting. I'd be more sympathetic to the mock outrage if people weren't voluntarily providing:
- information on where they travel and shop to their credit card companies
- information on where, when, and how fast they drive to their EZPASS entity
- information on what they eat, how many are in their family, and whether they're pregnant to their grocery stores
- information on their medical condition, diseases, and person issues to every medical facility, pharmacy, insurance company, and employer
- information on who they write to, why, and every other aspect of their life to their "free" email provider and Cortana

If one is going to be outraged, be consistently outraged.

I believe that law never actually took effect. Like you, I must have missed the outrage that has been expressed on these boards all these years over the status quo.

[ScottDLS]

I provide information on where I'm going every day by not covering up my face (and my license plates) when I walk or drive to stores. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry can see me going about my business....

[zmcgooga]

I don't really understand the sudden outrage over this. The law that started the protection of data was only signed in OCT/NOV of 2016, so it's only been in effect 4/5 months and before that were was all the concern??

I'm not a fan of data harvesting. I'd be more sympathetic to the mock outrage if people weren't voluntarily providing:
- information on where they travel and shop to their credit card companies
- information on where, when, and how fast they drive to their EZPASS entity
- information on what they eat, how many are in their family, and whether they're pregnant to their grocery stores
- information on their medical condition, diseases, and person issues to every medical facility, pharmacy, insurance company, and employer
- information on who they write to, why, and every other aspect of their life to their "free" email provider and Cortana

If one is going to be outraged, be consistently outraged.

I believe that law never actually took effect. Like you, I must have missed the outrage that has been expressed on these boards all these years over the status quo.

You may be right about that, I just remember it being passed, it may not have ever had time to actually take effect. Which if that's the case blows my mind even more because people are up in arms over something they never had.

[Dan20703]

Recommend a good VPN service?

I use express vpn. One of the highest rated ones. A little more costly. $99/year

[parabelum]

I have been thinking about this one, and it really nags me. I mean, as Trump supporter from day one, I've had heated debates on this very forum defending Trump and doing my best to help push for the victory this last November, in my own little minuscule way.

Now I find myself agreeing with that despicable Pelosi and the commie Dems? Something is not right.

I have yet to see a good argument as to why this is good for me? Matter of fact, unless you are in a certain business sector (ad/marketing, data collection, isp etc.), I don't see how collecting your browsing history data and disseminating the information for profit without your consent is good for anyone?

Moreover, it irritates me that healthcare is something that the distinguished Republicans on the hill can't seem to pass and/or get right, years after we were promised a fix, yet this gets cranked through the House in a jiffy.

Am I alone out here puzzled and frustrated with this?

[timdsmith72]

Recommend a good VPN service?

I use NordVPN. I like it. Lots of servers and speeds are very good.

As for whether the Privacy Reg being cancelled is good or bad, I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.

[nonleg]

It's a non issue. Your ISP isn't a problem any more than Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Facebook, etc., are. All of them have terms of service which any user has accepted which permit those services (for the most part) to collect information about sites you visit and your activities, even if you don't use google, etc to sign into those sites. (Hence why your wife sees ads for Ammoman.com when she is on Pinterest in your browser)

All internet usage is voluntary. If something is "free" you give up something to get said "free" product.

I bring up Google in particular because when they rolled out google fiber to Austin, my sister asked if it was a good deal. Knowing G's business, I went digging in the ToS. You could get 1Gig for $89 (or whatever) it was a month, but if you didn't want Google using your browsing data to deliver advertising "targeted to your interests" it would merely cost you an extra $30 a month. The default was to give up all sorts of data for their awesome, cheapo service that Comcast, etc., couldn't match.

Amazon does this too, but I find value in the fact that Amazon knows that people that enjoyed "Extreme Ownership" would also like "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. I get value from that, so it's ok.

VPNs are useless in this country, unless you use non identifiable logins (using John.Snow@Gmail.com to login to your offshore gambling account doesn't make it very hard for the IRS) for your activities.

Visit eff.org . Create multiple logins, never link Facebook, google+, etc., as your login across sites. Paranoia level is that you create a different alias email address for every site (it's doable and free.)