What was before a nightmare, on Monday became a reality. President Trump just signed off the vote to remove internet privacy and now it is a law. This brought a lot of tensions not only in the congress but to internet users and privacy advocates all over the US. Details of the debate on internet privacy can be found in the this link.
Trump Kills Internet Privacy
In a traumatic moment, President Donald Trump signed off the ruling vote to remove internet privacy turning it into a law. The reason behind the removal of internet privacy was even more illogical. As supporters of this decision in the congress claimed that this will balance off the market between ISPs and other internet companies (Google, Facebook,etc.) since before this rule was implemented, only ISPs were bound to not share your personal information except with your approval and the other internet companies had no such rule. So instead of widening the span of internet privacy to cover both ISPs and internet companies, they just decided to remove internet privacy all together.
The decision and its reasons caused a rage not only for the Democrats but for internet users and internet privacy advocates.
Supporters of the decision also claimed that when Obama tried to regulate internet privacy, this was only to benefit internet companies and not for the internet users.
In an act of protest, an internet rights non-profit organization called “Fight for the Future” stated that they plan to place billboards with the names of the congress members who voted against internet privacy. They also warned that the repeal would open the doors to a lot of threats to the internet users like: hackers, identity thieves, and will increase the abilities of government surveillance programs.
Even Trump supporters criticized this decision majorly.
Opponents of the decision stated that this is an attack against their freedom. Claiming that now they don’t trust the government to protect their privacy and are seeking alternative methods like VPNs. They stated that VPNs will only be able to protect them to a certain extent however, not every corner of their private internet lives could be protected by VPNs.
Before the signing of the bill, people urged Trump to reconsider and prove to them that he is not only the President to the CEOs but also the people. Apparently they weren’t loud enough.
Conclusion
This was definitely a major setback and nightmare for everyone seeking a secure private life, however the game is not over yet. Hopefully all these protests and moves will have an impact someday.
