You have a right to have your own privacy, isn’t that right? Well, that’s not what the majority of the Congress seem to show. On March 23, 2017, the U.S. Senate voted on the repeal of consumer-friendly internet privacy rules that prevent your internet service providers from selling your browsing history to major corporations. When this repealment passes the Senate, it’s only one step closer until advertisements reach your computer display that are customized only for you.

This means that our actions will get recorded and sold to other companies, benefitting our ISP providers and third-party corporations.

Doesn’t it feel nice when things you do are secretly being watched by not the government nor for security reasons, but for the corporations so they can profit off of you?

Students at the iSchool think otherwise. They agreed that their internet privacy should be kept and not sold to third-party companies.

“I do a lot of cringey stuff in my off time. I feel like it [my privacy] is important but at the same time I really have no shame,” said Coltrane Cho, a freshmen. However, he does agree that the economy should always be improved: “Yes, cause good economy means we’re not all doomed.” His overall view on Congress’s actions are negative: “I personally think that it’s bad that the ISP is selling your information because big corporations can use that to target you for targeted sales and perhaps using your search history against you.”

Joseph Cabeza, a freshmen, also on the same page as Coltrane: “I’d like to keep my privacy because it’s very important to me. However, yes, I do want the economy to succeed so we can get paid more often.” Joseph also dislikes the idea ISPs can sell their information. “Why would anyone in the world want that? Well too bad, the economy may die if this happens,” he retorted, “I do not approve of the congress’s repeal action. It’s my privacy! I guess I won’t have any service providers if this happens.” “I might as well be like those people who live isolated from the the internet,” he later then joked.

Reference:

Perez, Tony. “Security In Open-Source CMS Applications.”PerezBox. Tony Perez, 12 Feb. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

<http://perezbox.com/2016/02/website-security-in-open-source-applications/>.