The people responsible for FISA are busy investigating internet service providers for gathering up their customers’ surfing habits.
ISPs seeking to find new ways to make money by profiling their customer’s online habits are likely reconsidering after powerful House lawmakers turned their anti-tracking ire on a second large telecom in recent months.
In June, Charter Communications — the nation’s fourth-largest ISP — shelved its plan to make money by letting others snoop on and categorize the web-surfing habits — including searches — of its customers, following a May inquiry from Congress about the plan.
This go round top members of the House Commerce committee, including chairman John Dingell (D-Michigan) and top Republican Joe Barton (R-Texas) and telecom subcommittee head Reps. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) are targeting the Fortune 500 telecom company Embarq.
The lawmakers want to know whether the company informed its customers earlier this year that it was testing web-tracking technology that would chronicle their every move online. They also want to know whether the test of web-surveillance technology from NebuAd complied with federal communications law.
Anti-tracking ire? Seriously? How about turning your anti-tracking laser beam of wrath on yourself? When is someone going to stand up and tell Congress to go to hell? Come on. Am I the only one who thinks that putting criminals in charge of jails doesn’t make any sense? If that doesn’t make sense then how does putting professional busybodies in charge of making rules about busybodies?
I don’t want anybody spying on me. Not my ISP and not Congress. But in my lifetime, to the best of my knowledge, Congress hasn’t fixed a single problem that was affecting me. They just made every one of them worse as far as I can tell. The pot calling the kettle black doesn’t even begin to cover the sheer arrogance repeatedly displayed by this group of human beings. Shame on them.
Recent changes to FISA are a disgrace, but instead of dealing with their own unnecessary nosiness, Congress is busy worrying about the speck of sand in someone else’s eye.
Now go read about your dishonest Congress over at Downsize DC.
Why did nearly half the Democrats in the House vote for the “FISA Amendments Act” that’s now pending in the Senate, when most of them had opposed warrantless spying and telecom immunity before? The answer is that they were bribed, using your tax dollars.
Lots of Americans like to complain about how dishonest corporate America is. Guess what? Until we fix the even more dishonest oversight body nothing is going to change in corporate America.