It’s unthinkable, but now totally legal: Trump just signed a new law allowing your Internet service provider (ISP) to record everything you've ever downloaded, everything you've ever done online, and sell it to anyone -- without your permission or knowledge.
This is unprecedented. And it's a fundamental change to how your online browsing data is currently handled. With these privacy protections totally gutted, a Wild West Internet isn’t far off.
But we still have a chance to stop this. Some smaller Internet providers have already spoken out against this law -- and if we pile the pressure on now we can get the large ones to join them.
Major Internet providers are incredibly vulnerable to public pressure and if we send them a powerful enough message now, they’ll have no choice but to commit to never selling our privacy away.
Sign the petition to Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and all ISPs: publicly commit to never sell off or profit from my private web browsing history.
Now that Trump has signed this law, it’s up to us to demand that the companies we rely on for Internet stand up for us. If we can get one major Internet provider to back down, we can force the entire industry’s hand.
In lots of communities there will literally be no way to avoid the possibility of your private Internet data being sold off -- unless you stop using the Internet all together. Given that’s not an option, we need to fight back hard to stop this law before it’s too late.
Your private data shouldn’t be a commodity up for sale. What will big corporates sell next? This is a slippery slope -- and a dangerous one at that.
As Trump and the Republican Congress pursue their far-right agenda, we need to push back fast against their efforts to chip away at our civil liberties.
This is our moment to resist.
Stand now with thousands of us saying enough is enough, and no to Internet providers selling off our privacy.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new rules designed to protect Internet users from their service providers. This new legislation passed last week strips away those protections, allowing ISPs the right to sell your information and privacy to the highest bidder.
So much for draining the swamp. This law benefits nobody except for lobbyists and their big business paymasters.
SumOfUs exists to hold corporations to account. 100,000 of us spoke out for net neutrality -- and we won! -- and we defeated the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner. When we come together, we win. And we can win again on this.
More information
Electronic Frontier Foundation. 4 March 2017.
ArsTechnica. 4 April 2017.
The Intercept. 30 March 2017.