I would like to thank two of four Washington state GOP representatives for voting against Senate Joint Resolution 34, the nullification-of-internet-privacy rule.
The resolution got rid of the Federal Communications Commission rule that protected privacy of citizens while online.
Internet service providers can now sell your data to third parties without your permission (ISPs, like AT&T & Comcast, are your only access to the internet).
They possess your entire browsing history.
Advertisers can now fine-tune their sales pitch based on your internet history.
If you’re someone that wants more ads in your life, you’ve just plopped into the mud of pig heaven.
The resolution ending the privacy rule passed last week in a close vote of 215 yeas, 205 nays.
The GOP arguments for the end of the privacy rule?
Online companies, whose services you can avoid, such as Google and Facebook, had no privacy rules.
They currently sell your data to businesses.
Rather than creating a ruling for privacy on these companies (with a customer’s option of waiving their right to privacy), it made more sense, to the nullifiers, to get rid of online privacy altogether.
Also, the FCC had apparently committed “agency overreach” during the Obama administration by creating the privacy rule.
They felt the FCC was not the agency to make rules on internet matters.
Voting along with all six Democratic members of the House of Representatives to maintain internet privacy were two Republican Washington state U.S. representatives, Dave Reichert and Jaime Herrera Beutler.
Nationwide, a total of 15 Republicans went against their party’s stance on privacy.
Thanks to all 205 U.S. representatives for their discernment.
Tim Finch,
Sequim