Should companies like Comcast be able to sell your internet browsing history without your permission? Most Americans would say “no,” yet the Senate voted to allow just that.
IMO yes. Comcast should be able to sell my internet browsing history without my permission.
Every other company can sell whatever information I give them.
The more we treat certain companies as special and different, the more we set up the idea that normal rules don't apply, only the special ones.
If I don't want wal-mart to sell whatever information I give them from the moment I walk in the door, I don't go to wal-mart.
Dating sites sell whatever information they get from my profile, and me for just being here.
The government allows the DMV to sell my information, and does have rules on to whom and how it can be used, but those rules are not really observed or enforced very well.
I only really give a crap about what the government does with my information.
The government has police and jails and a military.
They have the potential to use my information against me and through threat of physical violence remove free will and choice.
Attempting to circumvent them puts me in greater danger.
Private companies using my information to sell me things doesn't scare me that much.
Only if/when they are in collusion with the government to enforce laws against me.
Otherwise it brings up opportunities. I can buy burner phones with cash. Why not start a business selling burner wifi I can use on my unregistered laptop. Or just use tor.
I buy clothes. Wal-mart doesn't take xrays and try to sell me penis enlargement cream. If they did, I'd buy lead pants, or not go into Wal-mart.
The only problem I will have with private companies is when they aren't transparent, possibly dishonest, about what they're doing, as well as being invasive with their methods (e.g. facebook/linked in, setting up cookies or malware to mine my email and programs on my computer for information, rather than just the information I transmit and send through them).
The only problem I will have with private companies collecting and selling my information is if the government gets involved to tell me I can't actively look for or use tools that allow me to control what information I provide, or those which take that ability away from private companies.