Senate Republicans vote to repeal internet privacy rules

[PZ]

Dang, Senate Republicans just voted to give internet providers the green light to sell your web-browsing data without your consent. For example a company like AT&T or Sprint can tell the time people wake up by when they check the clock on their phone, or see where users go to lunch or whom they visit. By tracking a user's browsing of medical websites, a carrier can also determine if that person might have an illness. Of course, this is mainly going to affect phones and devices, but nothing is off the table.

In a 50-48 vote largely along party lines, the Senate Republican majority voted Thursday to overturn the privacy rules, which had been created in October by the Federal Communications Commission. The House is expected to mirror the Senate's action next week, followed by a signature from President Donald Trump. One of the main reasons for the repeal is cited as "preventing the sale of your personal data means less potential revenue for ISPs" if repeal were not to occur.

I guess it is time to break out the old VPN 

[BinnZ]

Maybe we should launch our site on the dark net

[Art Blade]

  speechless..

[PZ]

It looks like it is all about corporate business and profits 

Maybe we should launch our site on the dark net

We could always use Onion over VPN 

[Art Blade]

you'd need encrypted peer to peer in order to make sniffing a lot more difficult.

[BinnZ]

Maybe we should just demand those ISPs to sniff the white house and publicly expose their activities through Sunshine Act

[PZ]

The VPN client on my machine encrypts the data stream before it leaves my PC - my ISP has no idea where I go nor what I do.  Now they cannot sell any of my data

[Art Blade]

could you perhaps start a new topic as to how it works, what programs, settings.. so data security and privacy may be achieved by everyone interested? That would be cool.

[PZ]

Not a bad idea - I'll put something together, since data mining is an increasing problem as unscrupulous ISPs and companies try to cash in on your browsing habits. Here's an interesting tidbit - my wife likes to donate to what she thinks are good causes, and I never donate (except for Boy Scout and Girl Scouts selling things at the stores).  I hardly get any spam/phishing/scam phone calls whereas my wife gets plenty.  These entities are not only accepting money from her, they are selling her phone number and address to spammers. 

[BinnZ]

Yes, charity is big business

[Art Blade]

that's really a shame. I don't know whether they sell the data or are just so easy to hack that other people steal and sell them.

[BinnZ]

I am pretty sure they sell them.

I thought of this topic when reading one of today's news messages; Italian Justice Department suspects refugee aid organizations of being funded by human traffickers. Go figure, how shallow the aid actually is. Traffickers benefit of those organizations making the survival chances bigger, meaning more people willing to take the risk.
I think the Justice Department might be right; where smoke is, is fire. And I remember how there was a huge economy in Turkey around providing float suits to all the refugees trying to reach Greece. Fact is, most of those float suits were so bad they would pull people down instead of providing some floating

Yeah, we help people... (from bad to worse)

[fragger]

As admirable and compassionate as Mrs. PZ is for donating to charity, you do have to be careful about who you donate to, especially online. Sadly, way more often than not, very little of your donated money actually ever gets to whoever you intended it for. By the time operating costs and the ever-present taxman have gotten to it, not to mention just plain unscrupulous middlepersons helping themselves to some of it, there is very little left over for the intended recipients - if there is indeed any.

I usually only donate (in person) to representatives of the Salvation Army, the Smith Family and the Volunteer Firefighters (the latter are invaluable in the rural areas of this land) as I know that with these organizations, my money will go where it's supposed to. I only donate face-to-face with the people involved - if I don't see a Salvation Army or firefighter's uniform, I move on. I NEVER donate online or give money to obscure people wandering around the streets bearing tin cans with labels of some sort stuck on them. They could be druggies garnering ice money for all I know.

It's not because I don't care, quite the opposite. If I'm going to give money, I want to be as sure as I possibly can that it's going to reach the people who need it. Besides, I'm not enormously well off myself. I'm comfortable, but I'm hardly rolling in it. If I donated to everybody whom I thought needed it, I'd have none left over for myself to live on, and I like to partake of some of life's little luxuries like food, clothing and shelter

[PZ]

I'm totally with you fragger    My wife and I have an unmentioned rule - we never interfere with what the other wants to do.  Sure, we voice our opinions, but in the end it is up to the individual to do what they thinks is right.

Just yesterday I went to the grocery store and the Girl Scouts accosted me outside the door wanting me to purchase cookies.  I told them that I don't eat sweets and they immediately had a crestfallen expression before I told them that I would be glad to donate, which I did. They were so appreciative that it made the donation entirely worthwhile for me.  That is the only kind of donation that I do - when I can look the person in the eye and know that it is going to a good cause.

[mandru]

If someone does decide to go with the Onion Router I've questions about it's usage and installation.  I know they have the Onion Browser to get away from Google and I've been using DuckDuckGo a lot more lately.  Leaving my ISP as the last gap in my privacy shield.

I'd appreciate info concerning the VPN browsing method.  I have the Ubuntu version of Linux set up to dual boot off my PC in in anticipation of a turn of events like this.  I've held off going that direction until now because it's often a flag that will earn you more attention from the authorities. 

I kinda get the mechanics of requesting info and receiving info back through a series of randomly connected server nodes.  It's more a lack of understanding about the install and usage that has held me back on jumping into waters that deep.