This week the United State Congress voted to let ISPs sell their consumers’ browsing history. This is a change that nobody asked for and is a clear selling out to the lobbying efforts of cable companies.

There is no reason to believe the bill won’t be signed into law. When privacy of public is treated trivially by the legislators and the government they’ve voted to power, it is time for the people to take back their power.

I do not intend to argue as to why internet privacy is important in this blog post. My biggest issue is that as a customer I pay an ISP for accessing the internet and in many cases there is only one ISP serving a region. The idea that the company still wants to make money by selling the users’ history is not just shameful but is ethically dubious. While this legislation has to be fought at the policy level, we as individuals can fight this by developing better browsing habits.

One way to resist is by using a VPN. I’ve been using one long before the mess we are in started; I strongly suggest you use one too. If you want to install one by yourself, let it be OpenVPN. Here’s a handy guide to host your own VPN server on digital ocean