After having been approved by Congress late last month, the final nail in the coffin for the Federal Online Privacy rules has finally been set. President Donald Trump has now quietly Signed Into Law the bill that repeals the landmark regulation that had restricted internet service providers (ISPs) from getting access to their customer's information without their permission.
What the regulation was all about and why it mattered
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) previously approved the new rule back in October 2016. It basically stated that ISPs were no longer allowed to collect and sell their customer's browsing history, habits, location and other data without their prior consent.
Several ISPs and Republican lawmakers had opposed the regulation stating that it actually gave internet companies, such as Facebook and Google, an unfair competitive advantage as the rules don't really apply to them.
A counter argument to why the rule was necessary
On the other side of the fence, it was argued that the comparison is not valid since internet companies only have limited access to a particular user's information. ISPs on the other are actually able to track and monitor a wide range of encrypted data.
Months of unregulated monitoring
Verizon Wireless' recent settlement with the FCC pertaining to the use of a "super cookies" is one such example of the abuse of power by some ISPs that may be construed as an outright invasion of privacy.
The company was found to have been using a tracking code that monitored its customer's online activity without their consent. Incognito mode, tracker blockers, and other privacy software were reportedly unable to delete or stop the tracking code from compiling data for all outbound traffic.
What this means to end-users
Now that President Trump has officially killed the regulation, and any similar rules in the future, ISPs such as Charter, AT&T, and Comcast are now free to sell the information they have gathered from customers. Due to their position in the overall structure of the internet, there is very little that users can do to stop the ISPs from tracking their online activity.
