1 . Consumers who value their privacy (隐私) can limit what they post on Facebook and adjust settings on sites such as Instagram. But Internet service providers (ISPs) have the best advantage point on what consumers do online, and there’s much less you can do about it. After all, your ISP is the conduit (中转机构) for everything you read, view, or shop for while you’re accessing the web at home.

New rules governing the way ISPs can use consumers’ data were adopted in 2016 and scheduled to go into effect this December. But they were rejected by Congress this spring That leaves the future of broadband (宽带) privacy practices unsettled. Consumers say they want more, not less, regulation of broadband privacy. In a nationally representative survey of 1,008 Americans conducted in early May for the Consumer Reports National Research Center, 80 Percent of respondents told us that ISPs should need to get permission before sharing consumers’ data. Six out of 10 didn’t think ISPs should be allowed to sell or share this information at all. Eighty-five percent of respondents said the data rightfully belongs to them.

Under the recently defeated rules，broadband providers would have faced a new login requirement, forcing them to get permission before using data such as web browsing histories. Opponents of the rules said it was unfair to hold ISPs to stricter standards than Internet companies such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook, which are regulated more loosely.

Going forward, state laws could pick up some of the conflict. By the end of May, more than a dozen states had proposed some laws mentioning the issue. Privacy protection bills were also being discussed in Washington, D. C. But privacy experts don’t expect much from the bills. After all, this is the same Congress that voted to roll back the existing privacy protections.