You have one day to stop Congress from giving away your web browsing history

Last week, on a party-line vote, the Senate voted to repeal the Federal Communications Commission’s 2016 broadband privacy rules giving consumers the power to choose how their ISPs use and share their personal data. Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will vote, and if the House also votes to repeal the rules, the bill will go to President Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The consequences of repeal are simple: ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Charter will be free to sell your personal information to the highest bidder without your permission — and no one will be able to protect you. The Federal Trade Commission has no legal authority to oversee ISP practices, and the bill under consideration ensures that the FCC cannot adopt “substantially similar” rules. So unless the bill fails in the House, the nation’s strongest privacy protections will not only be eliminated, they cannot be revived by the FCC.

WHAT THE RULES DO

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires a “telecommunications carrier” to protect the privacy of their customers’ personal information. Customers of the telephone network have long had their personal information protected under strong FCC rules. When the FCC classified broadband internet access service as a telecommunications service as part of its 2015 net neutrality decision, it applied these privacy protections to ISPs as well.

UNLESS THE BILL FAILS IN THE HOUSE, THE NATION’S STRONGEST PRIVACY PROTECTIONS WILL BE ELIMINATED AND THE FCC CANNOT REVIVE THEM

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