At least two internet campaigns are protesting against a congressional vote to repeal a key internet privacy law earlier this week. The groups think that the SJR34 resolution, which would let companies continue to sell user data without their consent, will infringe people’s privacy. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the order soon.
Both groups want to show the internet histories of those who supported the bill in and out of government. Both campaigns could be illegal since the US Telecommunications Act prohibits the sharing of “individually identifiable” customer information except under specific circumstances.
Actor Misha Collins, has raised $62,000 towards a $500m target.
He said:
“Since congress has made our privacy a commodity, let’s band together to buy their privacy,”
“This GoFundMe [campaign] will pay to purchase the data of Donald Trump and every congressperson who voted for SJR34, and to make it publicly available.”
The other campaign, run by Adam McElhaney, has raised $146,732 (£117,698) in four days on the crowd-funding platform GoFundMe – 9,648 people have made donations.
Mr McElhaney said he planned to “turn the tables” on all of those who had voted to ditch the law.
“I plan on purchasing the internet histories of all legislators, congressmen, executives, and their families and making them easily searchable at [my website] searchinternethistory.com,” he said
“Anything they have looked at, searched for, or visited on the internet will now be available for everyone to comb through,” he
Mr McElhaney’s site is also inviting votes on which politician’s data should be purchased first, with Speaker of the House and Republican Paul Ryan topping the list at the time of this write.
