What Happens Now that Netnutrality is Dead

While people like me will tell you that Netnutrality isn't really dead and that you can take back control of your Netnutrality by different means (Proxy, VPN, Obfuscation, TOR, Etc…). At the end of the day it is dead and all you can do is level the playing field. Why is this? Well one that’s all Netnutrality is and your ISP will always know if your using the Internet and how you are connecting. Even if you use a VPN they will still know that you are using a VPN and throttle your connection accordingly. What this might mean is they could slow down your Internet connection (if they are against you using VPN’s) or Increase it to accommodate for the extra data that will be sent do to Encryption. But, what about Obfuscation? While yes Obfuscation is great for hiding the fact that your using a VPN. It wont hide the fact that your using the Internet and will be completely useless in keeping your ISP for from charging you for using different services on the Internet (If that happens).

This is why Netnutrality is such a big deal. Your ISP already has so much power over your connection to the Internet. They literally have full control over it already. Now with Netnutrallity gone they are able to control the Internet. This means they can throttle your connection to certain services or completely block others. There are a few people on the Internet that will tell you that this will allow them to offer faster speeds for the services you use the most. The problem with that is they have to take it away from somewhere else. This means if your a Big Gamer then they might offer you a faster connection to Gaming services, but you will lose speed on Downloads, Browsing and streaming. Even worse they might end up taking that speed away from someone else’s connection (Who pays less).

So, what happens now? Well no one really knows we can guess all day, but ultimately it’s up to your ISP. You are completely at their mercy. Now there are all kinds of theories going around about what is going to happen, but like I said none of us actually know. People like me that are worried about Internet privacy and security will say stuff like. They are going to block certain services that they deem unsavory or slow you connection to the Internet to that service so it’s unusable. Allot of people think that they will charge you based upon what services you connect to (ie. $1.25/hr for streaming, $2.00/hr for gaming, $1.00/hr for browsing, etc…). Now I personally don’t think this will happen because it will cause the cost of using the Internet to sky rocket and push people away from ISP’s that do that. They reason that this theory has gained so much publicity is the dollar amount that is associated with it and the public is not in favor of it. Others think that they will use it to optimize your connection to the Internet, but we already talked about the risk associated with that.

What do we know so far? So, far I've been talking about possible scenarios that might happen, but no one really knows if any of these things will come to fruition. All we really know is what ISP’s have done in the past. If your big into Internet Privacy and Security then you will remember that earlier this year the FCC allowed your ISP to serve their customers ad’s. Their reasoning for this was that they felt they could get more money out of the data they had available to them. They went as far as pointing the finger at companies such as Google who offer advertising services and often sell their customers information. The problem with this is that you can choose what sites you go to. If their is a website that tracks and sells information about you. You can choose to not go to that site (Google isn't the only search engine out there), but you are very limited to what ISP you use. This proves that the only thing your ISP cares about is how much money they can make off of your Data.

What I personally see happening is that ISP’s are going to start selling out to government agency and corporations and use their control over your Internet connection to benefit the highest bidder. We might see this take shape in many different forms. They might improve your speed to websites that pay them more and decrease or block websites that pay them less or not at all. We could see this in ad’s that are showing up on the websites you visit. Oh and mass data collection has just become much easier (winks at NSA) and who’s to say that it will be done solely by the U.S. Government. They can sell your Internet Data to anyone they want. At the end of the day everyone is going to draw the short end of the stick and the only winners will be the ISP’s.

So, how can I defend against this? At the moment there isn't a bullet proof solution. All you can do is try and defend yourself. The best way to do so would be to use a VPN if they allow you to. This will at least keep your Data secure and force them to charge you a flat rate. However every time the Internet Privacy Sector is presented with a challenge we always over come it. So, be patient and keep your eye’s peeled because once we know how they will use this new power. We will find away to give you back the control you rightfully deserve as a netizen.

View Original Story

Recommended Articles

My VPN Review Notes

All of the notes that I tool down while auditing all the Different VPN Companies out there. You can use this article to base your questions off of when you start searching or to choose the VPN Provider that fits you best.

Internet Security In The Modern Age

In this article I teach you about different ways of securing your Internet Traffic online

What is Obfuscation

An article about what Obfuscation is and how it is used to hide your Internet Traffic.

Recommended VPN Providers

1. Private Internet Access
2. Nord Virtual Private Network (TOR Functionality)
3. StrongVPN