Internet Privacy

Where is the outrage?

Tim Westergren rallies listeners to save Pandora from extinction.

Silicon Valley rallies the troops to save net neutrality.

But when it comes to coughing up your browser history to you ISP?

Crickets.

Pop stars and sports team agitate against heinous North Carolina legislation that oppresses minorities and the state blinks.

The Republicans decide to allow your ISP to sell your browser history so they can make money, costing you money in the process, since your wants and desires can be manipulated, and no one raises a finger.

Is it that we're all so fatigued? With new revelations about Trump and his posse every single day?

Or is it we're so overwhelmed by the loss of the election that we can't be counted on to stand up?

But we stood up against flight rules that were discriminatory. We stood up against health care policies that would have eliminated coverage for many, but when it comes to protecting each and every one of us, as individuals, we blink?

What is the nation we're now living in? One wherein we pledge fealty to the government and sacrifice our individuality, lose our lives in the cause of "progress"? Foul our air and scar our bodies so corporations can make more money increasing the GDP? Come on, all this relaxation of energy rules. Do you personally need a pipeline? Furthermore, coal has been eclipsed by natural gas and solar, the latter of which has been pushed by the government, proving that the institution can do some good, but I don't want to get down into the weeds too much because I think this is something we can all agree on, is there any person who wants LESS PRIVACY?

I need you to read this opinion piece by Tom Wheeler, the former head of the FCC:

https://nyti.ms/2owNbhs

You will be very scared.

Not only is this rollback gonna be signed by Trump after sailing through Congress, the bill prohibits the FCC from acting on behalf of the public in privacy matters in the future. There, you just lost a layer of protection.

And Wheeler makes the point that phone calls are protected, but now when you search for a new car, that info can be sold to dealers who can act upon it.

And I don't want you to be criticizing the NYT. I don't want you to be e-mailing me about George Soros. Those are false equivalencies trumped up by a right wing media that has resulted in this nincompoop becoming President. Sure, Soros donates to left wing causes, but if you believe he uses his money to threaten Democratic leaders and spearhead his own agenda contrary to the will of the majority just like the Koch brothers and Robert Mercer, you're just plain wrong. And no one has as many boots on the ground as the NYT. The WSJ has shrunk the newshole to such a degree there's nearly nothing left. It's like reading a pamphlet. And what is there focuses on general news as opposed to the business news I subscribed for.

And the "Times" itself had an editorial yesterday decrying the loss of privacy, read this one too:

https://nyti.ms/2nzbsFU

Have we learned nothing from Edward Snowden? How many whistleblowers have to be sacrificed before we get the message... Those in power are in the pockets of corporations and are not looking out for you and me, no way, meanwhile they eradicated whistleblower legislation, because that's the problem, the takers out for themselves impeding progress. You probably believe liability judgments and class actions are raising your insurance premiums. Not really, not by much. Even the WSJ admits this. The end result? You can't sue a company anymore, you've got to go to arbitration, where the odds of winning are infinitesimal.

So now they know where you are and they know what you're doing and you've got no recourse. Sound like a bad novel, maybe "1984"? It does to me.

And what I know is if this somnambulant public woke up and protested congresspeople would freak out and roll these changes back. We've seen it time and time again. When it comes to technology D.C. is clueless. And when the tsunami of people who live online, which is almost everybody, complains, elected officials back down.

But the Silicon Valley companies are quiet because they don't want to piss off the ISPs.

And the left wing is overwhelmed and the right wing wants us to jet back to the 1950s but the truth is we're living in the twenty first century.

So do you want a camera in your bedroom? Do you want everybody to know what you're doing? Almost thinking, because that's what browser history is all about?

Then welcome to 2017, where your elected officials just coughed up those rights, figuring you just didn't care and weren't paying attention.

God, I wish we had some leaders, people who had the attention of the masses, who were trusted, who had credibility, who could wake people up and make them take action.

But although Edward Snowden could stand up on principle, you can't get an artist to do the same, no way, they're afraid of the hit to their career.

And the corporation outlives its executives and it must be protected at all costs.

And do we expect Zuckerberg and the social nitwits to stand up here when they're doing the same damn thing, slicing and dicing our information, eradicating our piracy?

If it makes money, it's cool.

But I don't believe that. I believe the air that we breathe, the conversations we have, the searching we do, should be protected, inviolate.

I've coughed up enough of my privacy already.


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