Eau Claire (WQOW) — The information you share on the internet could be up for grabs to the highest bidder.
This month, Congress voted to overturn rules recently created by the FCC, meaning soon your internet service provider could sell things like your browsing history, app usage and geo-location.
“There are people that are out there that are actively looking for your information. Everyday,” Tom Lange, the Chief Information Officer at Chippewa Valley Technical College told News 18. “This is the new environment that we live in.”
Fortunately, Lange said protecting your information doesn’t have to be difficult.
Start by knowing, and updating, all of your devices. Your phone, your tablet and your computer are all ways to share information with the public, but they’re also ways people can gather your not-so-public information.
“It’s amazing,” Lange said. “As we have more and more capabilities, that there are more and more ways to get at your secure data.”
Lange also said it’s important that all of your accounts are password protected, each with a unique password. Though he admits passwords won’t protect everything.
“One thing to remember is, nothing is secure anymore. When you browse, your history is saved,” he said. “It starts to learn your profile, even though it might not know exactly who you are.”
Lange said the easiest way to keep your information private is by deleting your computer’s history and cookies after every browsing session. It won’t be as convenient the next time you’re online, but he said that’s a small price to pay for staying secure.
“It’s a never-ending battle. One that we will never win” Lange said. “We just have to be more aware as we continue down this path of the internet of things and using internet in just about every facet of life.”
News 18 looked at how Wisconsin lawmakers voted on the controversial privacy bill and, as expected, Democrats Tammy Baldwin and Ron Kind voted against it. Republican Senator Ron Johnson voted in favor and Republican Representative Sean Duffy didn’t vote at all.
Follow the link to learn how your lawmakers vote on legislation.
Some people are so upset about the bill they’ve started crowd-fundraising pages in hopes of raising enough money to buy the data of every Congressperson who voted in favor of it, then make it publicly available.
