Your daily habits are collected, sold and abused by a universe of shady middlemen – and the government couldn’t care less.

If you hadn’t noticed by now, the United States is much like the wild west when in comes to consumer privacy. Outside of a law protecting minors (COPPA), the country has yet to pass a meaningful privacy law for the internet era, despite scandal after scandal after scandal showcasing corporate apathy toward protecting consumers’ personal information. 

While Facebook has received the lion’s share of public outrage in recent years, it’s the telecom sector that has pioneered privacy apathy on an industrial scale. From Verizon modifying wireless data packets to secretly track users around the internet, to AT&T’s attempts to charge users more to protect their data, the sector’s bad ideas are legendary. 

More at Vice Motherboard.