Gadgetory

hey Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress just passed a bill that lets internet providers sell your data without permission the bill overturns a rule passed under the Obama administration which required Internet service writers to actually ask for your permission before they sell your data it also required ISPs to protect your data from hackers and inform customers of any breaches this is pretty simple stuff I mean just look at this bill who would vote against this but the Republicans just erased it no one likes this even the comments section on right Bart thinks it's stupid so why and how did this happen well ISPs hate that companies like Google and Facebook can use your data and make a ton of money by selling advertising this new bill makes it easier for ISPs to run those same kinds of ad networks ISPs spend a ton of money lobbying Congress and the Republicans in Congress seemingly bought into the idea that ISPs and Google should be subject to the same kinds of regulations that argument is extremely misleading if not straight-up wrong Google and Facebook can't see your entire web browsing history they can only see what you click on while you're using their services or websites connected to their ad networks and Google and Facebook provide you with valuable free services in exchange for that advertising well valuable and if you don't think Google and Facebook are valuable or you hate their data policies you don't have to use them but you pay for internet service you pay for it and internet providers get to see almost everything you do online because it's their pipes and most people in America don't have any choice between broadband providers if you hate what your ISP is doing with your data competition isn't just another click away it might not even exist look if 18t Verizon and Comcast want to have a big ad based business they already can they can take their huge profits and invest in building services that are just as valuable people as Google and Facebook and I'm sure a lot of people gladly hand over their data if those things are valuable enough but that's hard work and I Spees don't want to do it they just want to scoop up the data they already had and sell it without giving you anything back you'll basically be paying them to eventually sell your information and make no mistake all of these ISPs think selling ads in the Internet is a huge part of their future they're all trying to control both the pipes and the media that flows over them just follow the billion-dollar deal trail AT&T bought DirecTV and is working on buying Time Warner Comcast bought NBC Universal by the way NBC Universal is an investor in Vox media which owns the verge so hey guys sorry about the video we're gonna keep going but 18 t literally trialed a plan where it charged it's in our customers an additional $25 a month to opt out the bad tracking this is ridiculous but here's the big one Verizon bought AOL and Yahoo and a company's explicit plan is to use AOL Zaid Tech and Yahoo scale to become a major competitor at Google in Facebook Verizon also modifies every packet you send over its network with tracking information they call them super cookies which is very cute but still evil and the company got in trouble over them a while ago and it's all still there unless you go and turn off under the new bill the road is clear for Verizon to combine the tracking technology in its network with the advertising technology it bought from AOL Yahoo to create an ad tracking juggernaut and it's not like your prices are gonna go down when this happens your prices never go down that's just not how any of this works no matter what they promise you okay just as an aside did you know that FCC Chairman LG pie was Verizon's associate general counsel for two years before entering the government what a surprise