President Trump signed legislation on April 3 that repealed Obama-era rules that were approved by the FCC in October 2016 to protect consumers. The rules, which had not yet gone into effect, would have required ISPs like Comcast and Verizon to seek consent from their customers in order to share sensitive private data such as financial and health information, social security numbers and web browsing history and location data.

Both the Senate and House voted–largely along party lines with Republicans in the majority–to repeal the rules at the end of March. Critics contended the new rules were onerous, duplicative of FTC rules and unnecessarily imposed additional compliance costs on businesses.

The Trump administration wants the FTC to police privacy issues connected to broadband providers and Internet companies like Google and Facebook. According to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, prior to 2015, the FTC “was protecting consumers…policing every online company’s privacy practices consistently and initiating enforcement actions.” (In 2015, the FCC stripped the FTC of its authority over ISPs. Pai says he will work with the FTC to ensure that customers’ online privacy is protected.)

The  now-repealed rules were intended to give consumers, and by proxy small businesses who interact with them on the Internet,  control over how their online information was being used.  Now, presumably  ISPs will be able to monitor small businesses and consumer behavior online and use personal information to sell targeted ads.

In any event, the repeal of those rules, at least in the immediate future, is likely to shift the burden of protecting consumer privacy back to small businesses. That means small businesses need to be able to protect consumer data privacy themselves. If you’re selling any goods or services online, you’ll need to take steps to make sure your customers feel safe.

A recent article in Small Business Trends identified a couple things small businesses can do.

For one thing, small business owners who are concerned about their own privacy and the privacy of their business should weigh using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for company business as well as ensuring that websites used are encrypted. A VPN provides the security measures businesses need. In the same way a firewall protects the information stored in your computer, the VPNs protect data you’re sharing through public networks. This allows you to  run around the proposed security rollbacks to assure your clients their data is safely shared with you.

Secondly, small businesses are encouraged to use an Encrypted HTTPS Protocol. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. The “s” at the end of the older “http” means that all the information passed between your browser and the website you’re connected to is encrypted. That “s” means all the data you share between you and your client is safe, regardless of any changes to privacy laws.