To the Editor:
I’m responding to Gene Stageberg’s letter in the March 29 Sun Sailor, where he describes Rep. Erik Paulsen as a thoughtful, middle-of-the-road conservative.
I’d like to highlight just one example where “Rep. Thoughtful” Erik Paulsen fully thought out how to mislead his constituents, all to benefit his most supported constituents. Not us, but businesses.
I am speaking of a letter from Erik Paulsen dated April 9, 2017, in which, after voting to disapprove an Obama-era FCC regulation on internet service providers (ISP) that broadened privacy rules, Erik explained: “Simply put, your privacy rights on the Internet remain the same as they were last week, last month, last year and for as long as you’ve used the internet.”
The Federal Trade Commission regulates companies that use the internet, such as Facebook, Amazon, eBay, etc. Because of the FTC, there are specific privacy requirements where users of the product must provide consent to use their information (though look how well that worked out with Facebook).
However, what Erik Paulsen did not tell us in his letter about the internet is that the FCC regulates companies that provide the Internet, not companies that use it. Since there was fuzzy privacy concerns between FTC and FCC regarding the Internet, the Obama-era FCC created the regulation that stated that ISPs needed consumers’ consent before they utilized consumer information. This includes browsing history, app usage, email, instant or direct messaging, customer data, even social security numbers.
So, in effect, Erik Paulsen told us the truth, sort of. When he voted to disapprove the FCC regulation, he voted to mislead his people constituents to benefit his business constituents, and voted to keep our private information available to ISPs to sell for profit. The Obam-era FCC was trying to protect us; Erik Paulsen voted against us.
Andy Dvorak, Minnetonka
Minnetonka Sun-Sailor, April 10, 2018