It’s official: the president has signed a resolution reversing rules passed last year that would have, among other things, provided strong protections against internet providers collecting and selling your browsing history.
This is no surprise; the White House indicated its support for the resolution as it was being approved by Congress last week. The Senate had voted along party lines, while 15 Republicans broke ranks to oppose the House version of the resolution.
As I wrote then, you won’t see any immediate changes because the rules in question were due to come into effect this year. Of course, they won’t now, nor will similar ones be passed any time soon, because the Congressional Review Act prevents it.
Broadband providers are newly considered telecommunications services, which the FTC is barred from policing; yet the FCC, whose job it became, is working on reversing that designation. So until they figure out this little oversight, it’s open season on your browsing data.