How to protect your data after Congress’ repeal of privacy rules

The House’s decision torevoke the FCC’s broadband privacy rulescan be huge deal for the future of your digital life. The decision effectively puts your data at the mercy of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with little or no oversight.

This means ISPs will be virtually free to market and monetize your data without explicitly obtaining your consent beforehand. In order to collect your data effectively, they will likely take measures that willundermine your security. By doing so, they will make it easier for hackers and malicious users to target you.

With an increasing number of connected devices and“smart” appliancesentering homes, you’re generating more data than before. As your gateway to the Internet, ISPs will have access to all of it. This means you have a lot to worry about if there are no legal and technical safeguards in place for your information.

However, the new ruling is not the end of privacy altogether. You already have ampleencryption toolsat your disposal to take matters into your own hands.

Here are a few things you can do to protect your data now that you’re on your own.

Browsing data is among the most valuable information consumers generate. ISPs will collect and analyze your browsing habits to serve targeted and personalized ads. An effective countermeasure is to only visit sites whose address starts with HTTPS (like this one).

HTTPS websites encrypt their traffic, which means your ISP will not be able to see the contents of the pages you visit. More and more websites arejumping on the HTTPS bandwagon, but there’s still a ways to go.

For sites that have not yet fully implemented encryption, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’sHTTPS Everywhereoffers a solution. HTTPS Everywhere is available as a free and open source extension available for major browsers. It makes sure that websites do not default to the unencrypted HTTP protocol when processing your requests.

While HTTPS will make most of your browsing traffic invisible to ISPs, they will still be able to see which websites you visit. This is enough to discover a lot of information about you, such as your shopping and banking habits.

Credit: TNWVirtual Private Networks are services that provide you with a gateway to obfuscate your Internet traffic. VPNs encrypt your entire web traffic and channel it through their own servers.