Assaults on privacy: an open letter to Congress


March 15, 2017

Dear [Congressperson/Senator]:

I am writing to urge you to defeat two bills which threaten massive breaches in privacy for the American people.

First, Congressional Review Act resolutions S.J.Res.34, H.J.Res 86 seek to roll back FCC regulations preventing ISPs (Internet Service Providers) from selling the entire Internet history of their users.  Online life is such a large portion of everyday life for many Americans that allowing the full details to be sold off is, frankly, creepily akin to allowing folks' homes to be invaded and an inventory and complete description of the contents to be auctioned off to any interested bidder.

Secondly, HR 1313 (the "Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act") empowers employers to demand genetic testing and family medical history as part of allegedly-voluntary "workplace wellness" programs or face steep (30%) increases in health insurance premiums; furthermore, this information can be then shared and sold off!  "Workplace wellness" programs were already problematic in that they are only truly voluntary for workers with an arbitrarily large budget for healthcare - this bill would add massively to the invasiveness of such programs and allow genetic discrimination on the basis of a young testing industry that is still not necessarily valid or useful.

To add insult to injury, both of these privacy invasions are nearly impossible to avoid for most people - except those with wealth.  Anyone rich enough to afford premium VPN (Virtual Private Network) Internet access that does *not* retain Internet history, and to either shrug off a 30% healthcare price jump or not be subject to it (as an upper-level employee or self-employed) would not be affected, leaving the privileged to maintain their privacy while the rest of us have our every online move and our very genes examined and sold.

These bills are a hunting license for companies to prey upon the private details of Americans' lives.  I urge you to take every possible action to see their defeat.