You may have received a new software update notification on your smartphones this morning. If you didn’t, you will receive an update notification soon.
The new software update is most likely in response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday that overturns Internet privacy protections put in place by former President Obama before he left office.
Trump’s executive order nullifies privacy protection rules signed by Barack Obama in his final days as president.
Obama’s rules would have required Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to get your permission before collecting and selling your data.
The new bill allows ISPs and tech companies to track your web surfing habits, scan your emails and text messages and sell that data to advertising companies without your permission.
So far, President Trump has done everything he promised he would do. But this executive order isn’t sitting well with even his most loyal supporters.
According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the new bill creates an “equal playing field between Internet service providers and tech companies,” as well as providing hundreds of new jobs.
“[Obama’s] flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, referring to Google and Facebook.
Ticking ‘Do Not Track’ in Internet browser settings is useless since ISPs and internet companies can now track your surfing behavior.
ISPs began rolling out new software updates on cell phones this morning, removing what little privacy protections you had on your phones.
Your auntie installed the new update on an old, unused cell phone just to see what was changed.
The first change I noticed was a new message in Internet settings under ‘Privacy’ that says my “browsing habits” will not be deleted when I clear the browser data (cookies and cache).
Federal law still requires Internet companies to protect user information. But it doesn’t tell companies how to do it. That is what Obama’s online privacy rule would have done if it had gone into effect.
