Internet Providers’ Privacy Options May Be Updating Soon, And The FCC Wants Them In Your Favor
Internet providers and privacy are a combination that has always been questionable at best. To the uninitiated, it may seem harmless to simply use the internet. However, there are hackers out there whose intentions are less than helpful.
The FCC knows this and wants to put your privacy where it belongs. They want companies like Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T to ask you for your permission to share data with other companies. Of course, this won’t protect you in case you post something on Facebook that nobody needs to know.
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It has been a scary but secretly accepted fact that the information you post on social media will be used to aid advertisers in targeting you. The chances are likely that you’ve seen suggested pages on Facebook based on things that you or your friends have shown an interest in. It’s called data marketing, a way for advertisers to know exactly what you’re looking for so they can offer you what you want.
Sadly, some internet providers like Verizon have been known to take your privacy and ignore it. The Verge states that Verizon’s “supercookies” collect data about you and use it without your permission. The FCC wants to put a stop to this, take the internet providers’ privacy standards, and make them ask you first.
Sadly, this may mean little more than a pop-up placed on the IP’s website, which you’ll absently click “yes” on just to get it out of your way.
Companies like Comcast have been known to blatantly ignore rules placed on them, such as when data caps were being eliminated. Their behavior around that time indicated that they were looking for a loophole to do enforce data caps anyway. As high-definition TV and movie streaming grow more popular, the more likely you will be to encounter these data caps. Even gaming consoles are growing more dependent on high-bandwidth connections just to play games, which are growing increasingly less “single-player-friendly.”
For the rest of us, there has always been the risk of having information stolen over the internet. It happens every day, especially if you do your shopping online. This may be among the information that the FCC wants to keep internet providers from being allowed to share. Privacy on the internet will never be complete, but the authorities are trying. It might not even be the IP’s fault that your credit card information was stolen, as key-loggers and database hackers are getting more and more tricky with their methods.
FCC unveils privacy plan to limit how Internet providers can use your data: https://t.co/lKk0UnHYQA pic.twitter.com/hLhwaa1eKr
— Daily Dot Politics (@DotPolitics) March 10, 2016
The Washington Post states that it could be months before these new rules will be put into effect, since the FCC is expected to vote on it by the end of March. After that, if approved, there will be months of meetings, and some internet providers will likely take legal action against the new rules. Advertising for companies like Comcast and Verizon may depend entirely on using your data without your consent.
In some cases, the sharing of data affects more than your internet providers’ privacy standards. The FBI and other government agencies tend to use that data to keep tabs on whether or not you’re engaging in internet piracy. There will likely be regulations still allowing that to occur, since piracy is a crime and very much the business of law enforcement.
Do you think that the FCC will succeed in regulating internet providers’ privacy standards in your favor?
[Photo by Cindy Ord / Getty Images for Comcast, Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
