Letter: New law takes away your privacy

President Donald Trump signed a law granting internet service providers such as AT&T, Spectrum and Hargray to sell their customers’ sensitive information — including everything from browsing histories and financial records to information on children.

And according to Marshall Honorof, senior writer for Tech Media Network, “Your ISP will now to be able to collect and sell your online data with reckless abandon, and frankly, unless you’re willing to kneecap your own internet access, you can’t do much about it.”

It is true that social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Classmates, LinkedIn, Google, Snapchat, Flickr, and others, do the same. But there are two major differences.

First, those sites are free and that is the known trade-off for using those services; and second, an individual can drop out of those sites at any time.

This new law allows the internet service provider you are paying for to gather and then sell your information. I think Sen. Ed Markey said it best: “Republicans have just made it easier for Americans’ sensitive information about their health, finances and families to be used, shared, and sold to the highest bidder without their permission.”

And while the American public is being rolled under the bus, our Republican legislators who sent the bill to the president are going to reap a windfall of contributions from internet service providers.

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 12:16 AM with the headline "Letter: New law takes away your privacy."