Earlier this spring, Congress went after Minnesotans, and the rest of America's online activity – from browsing history, health data, financial information, online purchase data, app usage and geo-location, all of it is being recorded by internet providers and sold by them to the highest bidder.
The Minnesota Senate passed a provision with bipartisan support earlier this session to prevent this practice and protect Minnesotan's online privacy. Senator Matt Little (DFL-Lakeville) has been a vocal advocate of protecting online privacy rights, and raised the alarm on Twitter after the provision was mysteriously stripped out of the jobs budget bill last week. He volunteered to pony up $20 to any Senator willing to share their online search history. So far, no takers. (See the tweet here.)
"If politicians aren't willing to sell their own data, why are they so willing to sell yours? It is absolutely unacceptable that a bipartisan provision to protect Minnesotan's sacred online privacy was stripped out of a budget bill literally in the dark of night. The irony of this action isn't lost on me, and Minnesotans should be furious," said Sen. Little.
Little says the provision was stripped out during a closed door meeting of House and Senate conference committee members. He adds that without this protection, Minnesotan's online data is up for grabs. He encourages everyone to contact their locally elected senator and representative and ask them to bring back this privacy provision.
Learn who represents you at the Minnesota Capitol by visiting: http://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/
You can find Sen. Little on Twitter at @LittleSenator.