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posted by Fnord666 on Friday March 31 2017, @04:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-different-way-to-buy-congress dept.

We had two story submissions on reactions to the US Congress deciding that one's ISP browsing history need not be private.

Protesters raise more than $200,000 to buy Congress’s browsing histories

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

After Congress voted Tuesday to dismantle landmark privacy protections for Internet users, pockets of the Web erupted in a mixture of fury and fear.

Among other changes, this legislation would make it easier, and legal, for Internet service providers (ISPs) to both gather and sell personal information including Web browsing history. In other words, AT&T could, in theory, sell to the highest bidder a list of the websites you've visited and the frequency with which you visited them.

Many Internet users aren't keen on the idea of companies selling their browsing data, so several independently came up with the same plan: They began crowdfunding campaigns to purchase the Web histories of the members who voted to wipe away those protections.

A few of these campaigns — there are at least four — are fairly small. Two, though, have raised more than a combined $200,000 as of early Thursday morning.

Misha Collins, the star of television's "Supernatural," started one such fundraiser that has raised more than $60,000 of its ambitious $500,000,000 goal.

"Great news! The House just voted to pass SJR34. We will finally be able to buy the browser history of all the Congresspeople who voted to sell our data and privacy without our consent!" he wrote in its description.

[...] Thanks, Congress, for voting to put all of our private data up for sale! We can't wait to buy yours.

— Misha Collins (@mishacollins) March 28, 2017

Purchase Private Internet Histories

Adam McElhaney, a self-described privacy activist says:

Thanks to the Senate for passing S.J.Res 34, now your Internet history can be bought.

I plan on purchasing the Internet histories of all legislators, congressmen, executives, and their families and make them easily searchable at searchinternethistory.com.

Help me raise money to buy the histories of those who took away your right to privacy for just thousands of dollars from telephone and ISPs. Your private data will be bought and sold to marketing companies, law enforcement.

Let's turn the tables. Let's buy THEIR history and make it available.

[Ed Note: The Verge has a good article on why although this is well intentioned, it's not going to work.]


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:25AM

    by FakeBeldin (3360) on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:25AM (#487576) Journal

    As one of the fundraisers acknowledges:

    Let me point out one notable followup tweet by Max:
    "also be wary of Kickstarters to buy this data, it doesn't exist and isn't for sale yet. Nobody knows what they're talking about." - https://twitter.com/MaxTemkin/status/846857142695067650 [twitter.com]
    He is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. I did not start this with a full plan.

    The fact that something is no longer illegal, doesn't mean a specific instance will exist. I doubt that whoever is the ISP for Congress will be willing to sell that data. Probably they'll just up their revenue by claiming "enhanced privacy protections".

    Starting Score:    1  point
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