Although the bill to repeal the Obama-era broadband privacy rules requiring broadband providers to work harder than the websites like Facebook Inc to protect customers’ privacy is strongly objected by privacy advocates, it finally ends up being passed by the Congress and signed by the U.S. President Donald Trump. The signing is believed to be a win for ISPs like AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc. while a blow to privacy advocates. What does the repeal mean? Will our privacy be put at higher risk in the future? If so, what can you do to protect your privacy after the repeal of the U.S. broadband privacy rules?
What Are the Facts about the New U.S. Broadband Privacy Rules?
The signing is reported to be a victory for internet service providers. What does it mean? Before the repeal, the regulations of the internet under the Obama administration require ISPs to do more than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google to ensure the customers’ privacy. They are not allowed to use the customers’ internet data such as web browsing history for marketing and advertising without their permission. While after the bill takes effective, ISPs can collect and use the consumers’ data if they don’t reject explicitly. However, some people believe that the consumers’ might be charged to have the ISPs to help protect their privacy. On a Friday, AT&T Inc., Comcast and Verizon said they would voluntarily not sell customers’ individual internet browsing information. We can learn from this text that the ISPs seem to be allowed to sell customers’ data anytime when they have to do so. For example, if there is a financial crisis, the ISPs can sell customers’ information to tackle the problem.
Online advertising and marketing is a profitable industry. Many websites like Facebook are making big money in it. It is no wonder that everyone wants to have a share of the pie. The Obama-era internet regulations are thought to be flawed privacy rules. Instead of online consumers, the rules were believed to benefit one group of favored companies.
The bill was signed by the U.S. President Donald Trump not long ago. It was narrowly passed by Republicans in the House of Representatives on a 215-205 vote. The U.S. Senate, controlled by Republicans, voted 50-48 to reverse the rules.
How Can You Be Influenced by the New U.S. Broadband Rules?
Many people said the repeal can weaken customers’ privacy protections. Apart from web-browsing history, other sensitive information such as health and financial data can be easily captured accordingly. Verizon, Comcast and AT&T are giant telecom agencies in the USA; it is really difficult for an individual to win a competition with the telecom giants. Concurrently, your friends, families and you may be all the customers of the telecom giants.
Comcast, AT&T Inc and Verizon stated they would voluntarily not sell consumers’ personal web-surfing information. While the Verizon said it has two advertising programs that involve the use of “de-indentified” customer browsing data.
Comcast was keen to emphasize their stress with the new privacy legislation.
“Comcast has committed to privacy principles that are consistent with the FTC’s privacy regime which has applied to all entities in the Internet ecosystem for over 20 years and which continues to apply to Internet edge companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. We believe this commitment is legally enforceable in multiple ways, including by state Attorneys General.”
The statements show the attitude of the three telecom giants; they can possibly also represent the attitude of other ISPs. But attitude is not promise. Promise is not law. It is hard to imagine what ISPs will do with your information when they don’t have a better choice.
The new U.S. broadband rules may put your web-browsing data and other important information at higher risk.
How to Protect Your Privacy after the Repeal of the U.S. Broadband Privacy Rules?
VPN is an effective and efficient technology to stay anonymous and protect your online privacy from any entities including the ISPs.The Virtual Private Network, which is also called VPN in short, is a technology that can be applied to various occasions to solve all kinds of problems. The technology allows users to establish a private network across a public network like the internet. Relying on the VPN technology, employees in the geographically separated offices of a company will be able to access the intranet of each office in a secure way. For individuals, the VPN technology can be used to protect online transactions, personal information and to bypass censorship and geo-restrictions. By applying this technology, you will be able to visit such popular websites as Netfix, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Youtube, Hulu and so on from China.
Depending on this technology, you will be able to enjoy all the benefits and advantages of the VPN technology concluded as below:
1、Stay completely anonymous online to protect yourself against hackers, spammers, identity thieves, government surveillance, spyware, ISPs and marketers
2、Enjoy blazing high-speed, reliable and continuous point to point file-sharing with complete anonymity
3、Circumvent port blocking and speed throttling management measures and monitoring of the ISPs
4、Enjoy free or public Wi-Fi securely
5、Enjoy geo-restricted resources such as movies and TV shows on the Netflix and Hulu
How to Use A VPN to Protect Internet Privacy?
The guide consists of three steps.
Step 1: First, it is needed to go to sign up for an account from a VPN service provider. Usually there are various service plan available, pick up the one that you think it best for you. After that, you will be provided the options to make the payment. Choose the payment method and fill in all the information to complete. An email will be sent to you to confirm the account upon payment being completed. After confirming, the next step is to download and install the software onto your system.
Step 2: Download and install the VPN software. Usually, a link to download the software will be provided in the confirmation email. You may be presented with a list of software where software for different operating systems or devices are listed. Select the one for your systems to finish downloading. The installation is easy, just click through the procedures as prompted all the way to complete.
Step 3: Connect to a US-based server or other appropriate server location on VPN. When the software is ready, the left you need to do is to start the application and fill in your account detail and choose a proper location. You can select any server located in US. If you like, you can also choose other locations like Canada. It is all up to you. Now everything is done. Now you can stay anonymous and well protect your privacy while surfing the internet.
Best 3 VPNs Review
For users who are looking for reliable brands of VPN services, the following three can be listed among their best choices. Although none of these brands is good enough to be considered as perfect in all aspects, they are very competitive in many aspects compared with their competitors.
#1 – Private Internet Access
Private Internet Access is regarded as one of the most trustworthy VPN service providers in the field of VPN technology. The most impressive aspect of their VPN service is the affordable pricing. They are able to provide the customers with the most efficient services of the most reasonable prices. Apart from reasonable prices, the number of servers and various useful tools like ad blocking and one click termination for all applications connected to the internet in case of a VPN failure are all powerful tools they use to compete with their competitors.
#2 – NordVPN
Headquartered in Panama, a country where people scream for freedom from NSA snooping, NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN services in the world. Even though its pricing is slightly expensive, it doesn’t prevent the company from being one of the most favored VPN service providers at all since it is a company that can ease the user’s safety concern to the most degree.
#3 – KeepSolid VPN
Apart from vast pricing options, multiple server choices and a bunch of impressive tools, KeepSolid VPN is doing better in many aspects compared with other providers. Unless you are looking for a service with faster speed and simpler UI or higher speed of file sharing across all servers, there is no reason to remove it out of your list of best VPN services.
Kindly Reminder: If you have any question regarding how to Set up VPN on your device, please live chat with Yoosecurity online expert for help.
Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on July 12, 2017 12:38 pm
