As the votes were cast, much of the United States waited in anticipation. After the bill to repeal net neutrality was set in motion, the issue caught lots of attention on social media.

Twitter, Instagram and many other outlets implored others to call their local representative to vote against repealing net neutrality. It was on Dec. 14 that these policies known as “net neutrality” were overturned on a 3-2 vote.

Net neutrality defined

Though the bill was seen as a positive by some, mainly large corporations, many were extremely disappointed in the Federal Communications Commission and their decision to repeal net neutrality.

Chief Information Officer Mr. Rolly Landeros explained what the United States used to know as net neutrality. “Net neutrality was a government led restriction on internet service providers and multimedia companies,” Landeros said.

Net neutrality involved a group of policies which mandated that those companies were not allowed to oversell their customers personal information for their own profit, not without disclosing that information at least.

However, that transparency is no longer required. Landeros continued, “If you are a Comcast customer, they will naturally collect information based off of your internet history. In turn, they can sell that to other people for their own profit without letting you know about it. Before, these media companies would have to communicate, ‘This is what we’re doing with your information as we provide a service’.”

The elimination of net neutrality will provide fewer restrictions on businesses so that can use their constituents to boost revenue through new product, more sales. Though that can be a positive, the largest objection against the repeal is that many companies are no longer required to be open about what they are doing.

Another downside is the seemingly omnipresent “broadband companies,” which provide services like cable, phone and internet, making profit at the expense of the consumers’ privacy.

This may come to create “a fight between consumer protectionism versus big businesses using their information as they please,” Landeros said.

How Cathedral is affected

As individuals, the repeal may have a significant effect on the country; however, that effect will not be immediately present to students. Landeros said, “The only impact it would have on the school right now would be how we go after reduced costs for our internet service budget. As a school we have other protections which supersede anything from this wall that has been eliminated.”

Though the school itself may not be directly impacted, once students step off campus, they will have to abide by the rules of their internet provider.

As Landeros said, “What you do online becomes less and less private; there will always be a bigger brother.”

For students especially, Landeros advised to remember someone may be watching. “It’s like a casino; there’s always an eye in the sky. You may not like it, but that’s the world we live in.

“Try to be careful and honest in what you do, but if (students) are the same people as when they talk to others, as they are on the internet, everything should be OK. It’s only when you decide to have a different life on the internet that things get complicated.”