GOP Congressman Defending Privacy Vote: 'Nobody's Got To Use The Internet' (washingtonpost.com)

Wisconsin congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. defended his decision to help repeal broadband privacy rules by telling a constituent, "Nobody's got to use the Internet." An anonymous reader quotes the 73-year-old congressman: "And the thing is that if you start regulating the Internet like a utility, if we did that right at the beginning, we would have no Internet... Internet companies have invested an awful lot of money in having almost universal service now. The fact is is that, you know, I don't think it's my job to tell you that you cannot get advertising for your information being sold. My job, I think, is to tell you that you have the opportunity to do it, and then you take it upon yourself to make that choice... That's what the law has been, and I think we ought to have more choices rather than fewer choices with the government controlling our everyday lives."
"The congressman then moved on to the next question," reports The Washington Post, but criticism of his remarks appeared on social media. One activist complained that the congressman's position was don't use the internet if you don't want your information sold to advertisers -- drawing a clarification from the congressman's office.

"Actually he said that nobody has to use the Internet. They have a choice. Big difference."

Comments

He is an idiot...

[FlyHelicopters]

In the USA, if you wish to actually be a part of modern society, yes you really do have to use the Internet.

Just like not having a phone number became a liability many years ago, not being online cuts you off from modern life.

This guy is living in the past...

Re:He is an idiot...

[SeaFox]

This guy is living in the past...

Truly. He's 73 years old and has been in public office since 1979. In other words, he got where he needed to be in life before computers were even common in the home. Of course he doesn't think the internet is important -- he's never had to look for a job in the 21st Century and most of his friends likely don't use the Internet beyond email and Facebook.

Re:He is an idiot...

[rahvin112]

Eight years? LOL

They aren't going to maintain their majority for 4. They'll be LUCKY if they don't lose the house in 2018 and Trump is a one term president. They've got two years at best to fuck everything up they can.

Re:He is an idiot...

[rahvin112]

Hate to break it to you but the Fed government is far to harder to corrupt than your local government. Your state and local government is corrupt almost without exception because relatively small amounts of money in coordination with non-existent oversight and ethics can buy just about every local politician and even law enforcement. To the point that your local government was bought and sold long before you were even born.

There is one power I'd like to see drastically expanded and that's the power of Federal law enforcement to monitor and prosecute corrupt local politicians and police agencies (I'd also like to see a similar nonpartisan office at the federal level going after federal corruption). Our founders thought local government would be more accountable and it is in some regard, but it's far easier to corrupt and it is corrupt in almost every state in the union, usually to the benefit of Property developers or other locals with money.

It's precisely because of that local corruption that the Fed's have had to step into many things they shouldn't be involved in.

Sadly, he's kind of right already

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

If you want to keep unprincipled actors in the datamining sphere from getting (too much) information about you, you *can* avoid patronizing internet services that are run by them. That means you don't get to enjoy 95% of the internet, because every-fucking-thing is run/owned/exploited/controlled by Google, Facebook, Akamai, Cloudflare...

I'm unusually careful with what I do on the internet compared to most people I know, and every year I feel more and more socially handicapped. As in:

"Oh, you don't do Facebook? I'll send you the invite by email then".

"What do you mean you didn't find it? It's the first line in Google search... What the fuck is Duckduckgo?".

"You should have used Waze instead of that offline satnav: it shows traffic jams and speed cameras live! What do you mean it's evil?"

Etc etc etc...

Time for his info to be posted publicly

[future assassin]

if you don't want your personal info as a public servant to be available to anyone 24/7 don't be a public servant.

Re:Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. is a mor

[gtall]

Nah, there's are legions of Republicans and a few Democrats that will still get voted in because their constituents are just as backward as they are. Texas is a prime example. Science? They've heard of it but figure is it a colossal dodge by liberals to prevent them from having dominion over the earth and giving it a good fucking.

Re:Exactly right

[Namarrgon]

What makes you think Google, Facebook etc are so keen to sell your data while AT&T etc would never consider it, despite them knowing everything from your home address and daily movements to your TV watching habits and full browsing history?

Just like Google & Facebook, the major ISPs don't sell your data but do use it to run targeted ad networks of their own, taking full advantage of their far more extensive knowledge of you - and they're much harder to avoid. Examples of abuse abound, like Verizon being fined for their zombie supercookies, or AT&T charging an extra $29/month if you don't care to be targeted.

You can easily avoid Google or Facebook, but how do you avoid your only local broadband provider, or the telco you bought your phone from? It seems the GOP's answer is to avoid the internet completely.