Wednesday, March 29, 2017

House Passes Resolution Making ISPs More Powerful Than Google And Facebook.


 Your online privacy just went out the window.

As I have been saying for a while, the cable box in your house knows more about you than any website.

They know what web searches you made, sites you visited, your downloads, your emails. They know what you liked on Facebook. They know what texts/pics you shared on your apps.

They know what TV shows you recorded, when and where you watched them. They know what you were doing with your other devices while you were watching TV.

Sure you can clear your cookies and history on your web browser, but that doesn't stop the cable company from following your online activity because they control the pipe. They can even monitor you when you surf on another provider. * There is only one way I know you can hide your Internet traffic from your provider.

Why the cable companies haven't capitalized on this goldmine is beyond me...well now they can.

Today the GOP just killed consumer broadband privacy protections.

The House of Representatives today voted 215 to 205 to kill privacy rules protecting US broadband subscribers. If you're interested in a little thing called public accountability, you can find a breakdown of which Representatives voted for the measure here. The rules, approved by the FCC last fall, were slated to take effect this month.

Today's vote came after the Senate voted 50-48 last week to kill the rules.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

A Slippery Slope And Reason To Be Your Own Boss

 A new bill would allow employers to demand genetic testing from workers.

A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information.

"What this bill would do is completely take away the protections of existing laws," said Jennifer Mathis, director of policy and legal advocacy at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a civil rights group. In particular, privacy and other protections for genetic and health information in GINA and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act "would be pretty much eviscerated," she said.