Your privacy online is the same as it was yesterday

I’m sure you’ve all read the apocalyptic reports that Comcast and Verizon are running to the bank in full Snidely Whiplash gear, twirling their collective moustaches as they relish the prospect of selling our browsing habits to anybody with a credit card.

The vast majority of the tech media's reporting is a variation on the privacy-is-now-for-sale theme. The Verge (for example) hyperventilates about the destruction of an “Obama-era FCC rule” — as if to suggest it had been around longer than five months, and that it ever actually was in effect. A New York Times' op-ed tells us “The Republicans Sold [our] Privacy” and we’re doomed. It's written by Tom Wheeler, who, as the sitting FCC chair when these rules were crafted, surely has absolutely no skin in the game.

The truth is we're no worse off than we were … yesterday. Basically none of the regulations were live (check out the rule yourself, which mentions that all the substantive sections were awaiting OMB approval). ISPs could have already been building dossiers on you and selling your information to anyone who cared to buy it.

Assuming President Trump signs this into law, we return to last September's status quo, with the regulation of privacy back in the hands of the one agency charged with general consumer protection as part of their raison d’etre, the FTC. For what it's worth, the current FCC chair, Ajit Pai, couldn't agree more (warning: PDF).

What's next?

The truth is this a sideshow, except for one big thing: It's a big reminder that the country that brought the world Silicon Valley is still downright backwards when it comes to national data policy.

So — putting aside the political posturing — what should you do to protect your privacy online? You could consider using a VPN for all your Internet traffic, but that may not be a great idea. You could donate to the EFF, who takes privacy lobbying very seriously, and hope that they eventually do the right thing.

Or, more concretely, you could (and should) contact your representatives and demand that America finally enacts comprehensive privacy legislation, as has just about every other major country in the world. The United States still has no real privacy legislation governing how private companies can collect our data, what private companies can do once they have it, or how we can verify the data in question is accurate and complete.

I don’t love the reporting suggesting that we’ve lost some sort of key consumer protection, but I do love that it is making people realize we never really had the protections in the first place. Creating comprehensive personal privacy legislation is the right next step that can truly keep us safe.