
Congress’s vote to eviscerate Internet privacy could give the FBI massive power - zaroth
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congresss-vote-to-eviscerate-internet-privacy-could-give-the-fbi-massive-power/2017/03/30/0feae55e-1550-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html
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sschueller
I am a bit confused as I have read that this bill only reverses a bill that
was past last year and isn't even in effect yet. Would also explain the split
right down the political ile. Or am I interpreting this incorrectly?

Internet privacy in the US may be non existent but it hasn't changed in many
years from what I can tell.

The outrage seems overblown or at least misplaced as nothing has actually
changed if that is true.

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guelo
What you have read is propaganda. ISPs have never been allowed to do what they
are about to do. Between the move to common carrier until the new privacy rule
was to go into effect ISPs could theoretically have started new data selling
programs but they had not because of the legal uncertainty and they knew the
new rules were coming.

As usual some of the best technical reporting on the issue is at ars
[https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2017/03/how-i...](https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2017/03/how-isps-can-sell-your-web-history-and-how-to-stop-them/)

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mbloom1915
honestly can we stop fanboying over Comey's twitter account and see some real
action against this shit - tech giants super quiet this past week

~~~
mbloom1915
p.s. Ajit Pai is a puppet

~~~
EGreg
Why do Republicans really seem terrible?

The party of hypocrisy - eg had only one 9/11 commission but ten Benghazi
commissions, or eg cared about deficits only when Democratic president is in
power

Gerrymandering (REDMAP)

Threatened US default over debt ceiling

Wanted to gut ethics committee as soon as they could

Refused to hold a vote on a supreme court justice indefinitely as long as a
Democrat president nominated him/her

Told CBO not to calculate cost of repealing Obamacare

Want to roll back civil rights of gays

Want to roll back environmental protections

Want to make coal and fossil fuels win over clean energy, are angry about
investment in green energy

Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality

Want to use taxpayer money to expand the army already past ridiculous levels

Are angry about universal healthcare even though rest of the developed world
has it and has cheaper better outcomes

What is the explanation for why they seem to be against everything that a
person would normally consider good?

I realize they say they want personal freedom and smaller government. But then
they want to expand the army, keep increasing fossil fuel subsidies, etc.

And when someone is incompetent, they seem applaud it... they seem to be
against college education, teaching evolution, skeptical of global warming to
the end, etc. and (with some exceptions) are ok with Donald Trump's blundering
and appointments of people to agencies who have explicitly said in the past
they want those agencies eliminated.

Why? Am I really being partisan and Democrats break just as many rules? I just
don't see it. Both parties have their problems but Democrats seem to at least
care about competence and fairness while Republicans honestly seem to find new
rules to break all the time, on top of everything I mentioned above. And then
when the Democrats follow suit they get upset.

~~~
supremesaboteur
> Refused to hold a vote on a supreme court justice indefinitely as long as a
> Democrat president nominated him/her

Republicans have confirmed Democratic supreme court nominees before [1]

> Want to make coal and fossil fuels win over clean energy, are angry about
> investment in green energy

Not true, they want a market based solution to clean energy

> Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality

They want a market based solution to privacy and net neutrality

> Are angry about universal healthcare even though rest of the developed world
> has it and has cheaper better outcomes

Republicans believe in individual liberty and individual responsibilty and
that healthcare is an earned right.

> I realize they say they want personal freedom and smaller government. But
> then they want to expand the army

Republicans believe that defense is within the purview of government.

Also, note that if you give people freedom they will use it. So you will see
some crazy people among Republicans, but it is preferrable ( atleast to some
people ) to the politically correct groupthink present on the left.

But the anti-science crictism of Republicans is valid. They need to do better.

But it is surprising to me how much Republican bashing goes on in this site. I
am not American, but still I find it annoying.

[1]
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/us/politics/07...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/us/politics/0731-sotomayor-
vote.html)

~~~
jasonjayr
> > Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality

> They want a market based solution to privacy and net neutrality

See, this is annoying. Because of telecom regulation, there is no 'market' so
to speak. Lets roll back the regulations and allow some actual, legit last-
mile competition, and then this might make sense.

As it stands now, in most markets, there is no choice of a high-speed ISP that
isn't drooling over the collection of internet usage data.

~~~
Consultant32452
I think people on HN over-estimate the consumer demand for privacy. One need
only look at how many people use Facebook or other social networks to know
this really just isn't important to them. So the market for people who care
enough about usage data collection in order to actually speak with their
wallets is incredibly small. If the market does demand it, then WIFI routers
will start to advertise easy VPN setup with various vendors as a feature. Or
maybe some other solution will arise. The market will provide one way or
another.

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edko
Would states individually have the ability pass laws that restrict this
Federal law in their territory, making it virtually inapplicable?

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aaronbrethorst
[https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/03/minnesota...](https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/03/minnesota-
senate-votes-58-9-pass-internet-privacy-protections-response-repeal-fcc-
privacy-rules/)

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yeukhon
If Google, Facebook and other major tech giants did lobby recently, then I
consider the passing of this bill a major failure for those companies on
lobbying effort. Would it be okay for Mark Zuckerberg to donate a huge private
money to the Republican Party and overturn the ISP's influence?

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deelowe
None of this is ok.

