【Saigon Sunset】

Go ahead and Saigon Sunsetassume that everything you do online is being tracked and sold without your knowledge.

The House voted 215-205 on Tuesday in favor of erasing a rule that would prevent internet service providers from quietly selling off consumer data without notifying those consumers. The rule — enacted last year by the Federal Communications Commission — was so short-lived that it never got the chance to be implemented.

The Senate voted to do the same thing in a 50-48 vote late last week. Now, it's up to President Donald Trump to sign off on the bill to finalize the repeal. The White House formally indicated on Tuesday that Trump supported the bill's repeal.

Advocates for repealing the FCC's regulation say asking permission from customers before tracking and selling data places an unreasonable burden on internet service providers, and the FCC shouldn't slow these businesses with these kind of legal hurdles.

But privacy advocates are bemoaning the loss of an internet in which companies wouldn't be able to easily prey on the data of the people to whom they provide a service.

"Those rules were a huge victory for consumers," Electronic Frontier Foundation policy analyst Kate Tummarello wrote on the organization's site earlier this week. "Of course, the ISPs that stand to make money off of violating your privacy have been lobbying Congress to repeal those rules. Unfortunately, their anti-consumer push has been working."

With a Trump signature, internet service providers will be able to sell your data, fill your internet searches with even more ads, monitor all the sites you check out, and -- if you use HTTP -- follow your digital self around with tracking cookies that cannot be erased... and not even have to give you a heads up about it.

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