The new law that is being passed about data should scare you. I’m not one that makes these statements lightly, but you should be worried. If you haven’t heard, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) laws that President Obama put into place (though he only approved them, he didn’t pass them) will be gone. These regulations essentially kept data carriers from selling your data to larger companies. If (now when) these larger corporations get you data, they can know your geolocation, spending habits, and many other things that you probaly don’t want a ton of people to know.
So now you may be thinking, “Well this bill has to go through the House and the Senate before it even becomes my issue, so why should care?’ Plot twist: it’s already been passed by both and is now on the way to President Trump, who will undoubtedly sign this. The most concerning part is that when asked, “What is your reason passing these privacy invading laws?” the best answer anyone can muster is some half thoughtout reply about “anti- competitive market”.
Now, you may argue, “Google and Facebook already team-up to send me ad recommendation.” You’re not wrong. However, this is different. You will essentially be making large corporations money based on your personal information. You see, even now there are certain things that they cannot access, but after these new laws come into effect there will be no hiding. This post isn’t a call to action, we are past that point. While I assume there will be pushback, there isn’t much collectivly we can do to stop this. However, re-elections are just around the corner (2018). Linked below will be my sources, and also a few other things I highly recommend you reading. I will also link to two youtube videos by Philip DeFranco videos that do an excellent job of explaining the implications of these new laws. Lastly, my opinion. I think this is a major violation of privacy. This, quite frankly, terrifies me. No, I don’t do sketchy things that I don’t want the goverment or ad agencies to know about. I would gladly give the passsword for my iPhone to the government. I have nothing to hide. However, my fear is hacking. Everything can be hacked. To think that these hackings aren’t possible is naive (and means you’re not watching the news). Once an agency has your info, that info is subject to any hacking those companies face, and that terrifies me.
Philip DeFranco videos- one and two
List of representitives that approved of these changes
NPR article that goes into detial and explains this situation