In all the commotion surrounding the failed Republican healthcare plan, you may have missed that Congress recently opted to make it possible for your private information to be collected, used and distributed by your internet provider without your permission (H.J. Res 86).
And why did they do this you might ask? Because, apparently, the telecommunications lobby in this country literally sold them a bill of goods about how important it was to lessen government regulation in such a highly competitive business as theirs. Nonsense. Ultimately, the Senate just issued a blank check based for your private information being sold for their commercial gain without even giving you so much as a heads up.
{mosads}Let’s break this down: almost every citizen lives their daily lives online now. We surf; we watch; we post; we communicate; we bank; and we seek medical information. Lots of very personal information flows during these various activities, much of that without our knowledge.
One of the most insightful places where all of this information accumulates rapidly is with your internet service provider who, quite frankly, can generate almost limitless insight in your daily life by collating and analyzing this data. And that is valuable to those who want to reach out to you and offer products and services. But do we really want to enable that in a nation that constitutionally provides protections for liberty, freedom AND PRIVACY for all? Why should anyone be able to learn this much about you without your consent? What were they thinking?
Well, perhaps they weren’t. Is it just possible that these Senators don’t actually understand what they have done? Or, perhaps failing prey to slick lobbyists and industry rhetoric, they are prepared to voluntarily relinquish your privacy rights in the name of lightening government industry regulation and interference – a bulwark of the emerging conservative movement in Washington that seems to be moving at a dizzying speed but perhaps not with full thought.
As someone who firmly believes in free enterprise – for heaven’s sake that is all we prophesize in a business school – the irony of arguing against this position in this instance is not lost on me. But the wholesale slaughter of individual privacy and freedom with no attendant gain for anyone involved except the large national ISP’s is simply wrong. And we cannot go quietly into the night if we all don’t want to wake up to a data privacy nightmare soon after. It is never okay for anyone to take your personal information without permission – it is data rape in the digital age as far as I can tell.
Learn more and act now. The bill just passed through the House of Representatives and now heads to President Donald Trump to sign into law. Then we can all expect to see ads for prescription drugs for a condition that no one knows you have suddenly pop up in your browser one day – along with a note from your local clinic offering to help you out if you need it. And a link to a Facebook support group so that you can share your pain with others. Because that kind of personal invasion of your privacy is coming soon to a browser session near you.
Dr. James Norrie is the Dean of the Graham School of Business and Chloe Eichelberger Chair for Business Education at York College of Pennsylvania.
The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.