Crowdfunding Campaings Launched to Buy Republicans' Internet Data from ISPs

[CrAKeN]

 

Browsing data of members of Congress to be "fair game"

 

As the White House prepares to sign the bill passed by the US Congress the other day, the Internet prepares to pay back the lawmakers for taking away their privacy by allowing ISPs to sell off their personal information without as much as getting their consent. 

 

As you may have found out already, Republicans in the House of Representatives decided to give ISPs countless billions of dollars by allowing them to sell customers' private data, including their browsing history, without their knowledge. Republicans in the Senate did the same thing last week, making sure to put an end to privacy regulations adopted during the Obama administration.

 

Now that this is said and done, people are looking to pay back these lawmakers. Two GoFundMe accounts were started to help creators purchase the private Internet history of Congress members.

 

One was started by an engineer in Tennessee named Adam McElhaney, while the other was started by Supernatural actor Misha Collins.

 

McElhaney's campaign raised $85,597 of the $10K goal in 3 days, receiving donations from nearly 6,000 people. While the GoFund me goal was set at a mere $10,000, the website he created - searchinternethistory.com mentions $1 million, which is probably a more realistic sum required to get such targeted sensitive data.

 

He says he plans to buy Internet history from all legislators, congressmen, executives, and their families and make them easily searchable, although he admits that the focus will be put on Republican legislators who came up with this entire plan.

 

Donald Trump targeted too

The second campaign set up by actor Misha Collins, raised $33,827 at the time of writing, via 1,827 people in a single day. The goal, however, is half a million dollars.

 

"Congress recently voted to strip Americans of their privacy rights by voting for SJR34, a resolution that allows Internet Service Providers to collect, and sell your sensitive data without your consent or knowledge. Since Congress has made our privacy a commodity, let’s band together to buy THEIR privacy," reads the campaign.

 

Collins goes on to mention that he plans to purchase the data of Donald Trump and every Congressperson who voted on the bill, making it publicly available. He says he will not share information that will impact the safety and security of their families, such as personal addresses, but all other details are fair game. "It says so right in the resolution that they voted to approve. Game on, Congress," he notes.

 

If not enough money is raised to buy the data, all proceeds will go to the ACLU which has been quite busy fighting for people's basic rights in the past few months.

 

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