Like it or not, the internet is a vital part of our everyday lives. Not the Facebook portion, that you can probably live without, but it is essential in staying informed and making life easier for everybody, a welcomed improvement over the resources people had even just twenty years ago. If the internet was shuttered tomorrow like a Blockbuster video, we would all feel the impact. In 2017, pretty much everybody would agree that the internet is not really a choice, it’s a necessity. Everyone, apparently, except GOP Representative Jim Sensenbrenner. He likens the internet is like eating ice cream: a sweet treat you choose to eat. If you don’t like gaining weight or getting brain freezes, don’t eat ice cream.
.@JimPressOffice tells his constituents not to use the internet if they don’t like his vote to sell out their privacy to advertisers. #wi05 pic.twitter.com/lSVVx8OclO
— Brad Bainum (@bradbainum) April 13, 2017
Sensenbrenner was asked by a constituent at a town hall event about the Republican’s recent decision to overturn Obama-era privacy protections barring internet service providers attempting to sell information about consumer browsing history. His response isn’t on the level of Ted Steven’s series of tubes, but it is in the running according to MSNBC:
You know, nobody’s got to use the internet…. I don’t think it’s my job to tell you that you cannot get advertising through 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 the choice….”
That, as the kids would say, is a fire take. Sensenbrenner actually believes that the solution to your information never being sold by an internet provider is to never use an internet provider. Certainly, if asked, Sensenbrenner probably believes if you don’t want to ever have your credit card information stolen, just never use a credit card. It’s so simple when you get down to the brass tacks of it! Sensenbrenner’s office offered a clarification on Twitter, but it still seems to be disconnected from the current needs of the public:
https://twitter.com/JimPressOffice/status/852593511069364224
Soon, providers will be able to sell its customers’ browsing habits, geo-location, and app usage to the highest bidder, entering the market of online advertising that is estimated to be worth a combined $83 billion dollars.