 Hey, Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress just passed a bill that lets internet providers sell your data without permission. The bill overturns a rule passed under the Obama administration, which required internet service providers to actually ask for your permission before they sell your data. It also required ISPs to protect your data from hackers and inform customers of any breaches. This is pretty simple stuff. I mean, just look at this bill. Who would vote against this? But the Republicans just erased it. No one likes this. Even the comment section on WriteBart thinks it's stupid. So why and how did this happen? Well, ISPs hate that companies like Google and Facebook can use your data and make a ton of money by selling advertising. This new bill makes it easier for ISPs to run those same kinds of ad networks. ISPs spend a ton of money lobbying Congress, and the Republicans in Congress seemingly bought into the idea that ISPs and Google should be subject to the same kinds of regulations. That argument is extremely misleading, if not straight up wrong. Google and Facebook can't see your entire web browsing history. They can only see what you click on while you're using their services or websites connected to their ad networks. And Google and Facebook provide you with valuable free services in exchange for that advertising. Well, valuable. And if you don't think Google and Facebook are valuable, or you hate their data policies, you don't have to use them. But you pay for internet service. You pay for it. And internet providers get to see almost everything you do online because it's their pipes. And most people in America don't have any choice between broadband providers. If you hate what your ISP is doing with your data, competition isn't just another click away. It might not even exist. Look, if AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast want to have a big ad-based business, they already can. They can take their huge profits and invest in building services that are just as valuable to people as Google and Facebook. And I'm sure a lot of people will gladly hand over their data if those things are valuable enough. But that's hard work, and ISPs don't want to do it. They just want to scoop up the data they already have and sell it without giving you anything back. You'll basically be paying them to eventually sell your information. And make no mistake, all of these ISPs think selling ads on the internet is a huge part of their future. They're all trying to control both the pipes and the media that flows over them. Just follow the billion dollar deal trail. AT&T bought DirecTV and is working on buying Time Warner. Comcast bought NBCUniversal. By the way, NBCUniversal is an investor in Vox Media which owns The Verge. So hi guys, sorry about the video. We're going to keep going. AT&T literally trialed a plan where it charged its in-ear customers an additional $25 a month to opt out of ad tracking. This is ridiculous. But here's the big one. Verizon bought AOL and Yahoo, and the company's explicit plan is to use AOL's ad tech and Yahoo's scale to become a major competitor to Google and Facebook. Verizon also modifies every packet you send over its network with tracking information. They call them super cookies, which is very cute but still evil. And the company got in trouble over them a while ago, and it's all still there unless you go and turn off. Under the new bill, the road is clear for Verizon to combine the tracking technology in its network with the advertising technology it bought from AOL and Yahoo to create an ad tracking juggernaut. And it's not like your prices are going to go down when this happens. Your prices never go down. That's just not how any of this works, no matter what they promise you. Oh hey, just as an aside, did you know that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was Verizon's associate general counsel for two years before entering the government? What a surprise.