Activist Finds the Perfect Way to Turn Tables on Lawmakers Who Voted to Repeal Internet Privacy Rule

Republicans in Congress voted this week to gut a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) privacy rule that would sell everyone out to Internet Service Providers (ISP). The push will give ISPs the right to sell customer data to marketers, insert ads in your traffic, and insert tracking cookies in HTTP traffic that can’t be deleted or traced.

Repealing the FCC guidelines is a huge blow to online privacy. So Adam McElhaney, an activist based in Chattanooga, Tennessee who cares about privacy and net neutrality set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations to buy the internet histories of everyone who voted to repeal the FCC’s privacy protections.

The page is called “Purchase Private Internet Histories.”

“I think that your private Internet history should be yours,” McElhaney wrote on the page. “I also believe your Internet should be neutral. I am raising money to help secure those freedoms.”

McElhaney explained that because the Senate is gutting online privacy and allowing anyone’s internet histories to be purchased, “I plan on purchasing the Internet histories of all legislators, congressmen, executives, and their families and make them easily searchable at searchinternethistory.com.”

“I don’t think that what I lookup on the Internet, what sites I visit, my browsing habits, should be bought and sold to whoever. Without my consent,” McElhany noted, with a call to action. “Let’s turn the tables. Let’s buy THEIR history and make it availble [sic].”“Everything from their medical, pornographic, to their financial and infidelity,” McElhaney wrote. “Help me raise money to buy the histories of those who took away your right to privacy for just thousands of dollars from telephone and ISPs.  Your private data will be bought and sold to marketing companies, law enforcement. ”

“Join me in the fight to turn the tables and do whatever it takes to take back your privacy.”

The page has so far raised $54,446, after intending only to raise $10,000.