The loss of internet privacy protection is outrageous

How would you feel if your telephone service provider (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T), without your permission, was listening to and recording every phone conversation you made, including the identities of everyone you talked with? Imagine that, in addition to charging you every month for the privilege of using their phone lines and cell towers, they could also line their pockets by selling the content of your private conversations to advertisers, insurance companies, private investigators, politicians, salespeople and whoever else will pay up.

Outrageous, right? Well, that’s exactly what your Republican Congress and President Donald Trump are doing to your internet privacy (“Opinions Divided on Internet Privacy Rule Change,” March 30). Who would have thought that proud conservative politicians, who bark so loudly about individual rights and ownership of one’s personal information, would destroy our privacy by giving these companies the right to spy on us, record our behavior and sell our personal information to the highest bidder? And we get to send them a check every month!

If you agree, please sign the “We the People” petition on Whitehouse.gov to reinstate privacy protections for customers of broadband and other telecommunications. But beware, your ISP is watching! JAY LYNCH Upper St. Clair job candidates, up from 52 percent the previous year and 11 percent in 2006. Also, more than a quarter of employers have found content online that has caused them to reprimand or fire an employee.

TheVerge.com lists representatives who supported the anti-privacy bill along with the money they received from telecommunications companies. Sen. Pat Toomey (endorsed by the PG) received $143,456. You might view this as immaterial unless you consider that, according to a Huffington Post poll, just 6 percent of Americans thought ISPs should be allowed to share their data without permission. Thus the constituency the GOP repaid by enabling this encroachment included only a handful of entities endowed with corporate personhood, not the kind of personhood we used to associate with the phrase “we the people.”

The GOP laying waste to important aspects of our system is reminiscent of the way ISIS shamelessly destroys cultural monuments. Our new ally, Russia, must be pleased with the unraveling of our government it helped bring about. ARTHUR DENBERG

Squirrel Hill

After the Power Point presentation at the early afternoon session of Wednesday’s bus rapid transit public meeting in Oakland, several people wanted to respond before the entire assembly (“Bus Transit Proposal Gets Good Reviews: About 200 Attend Two Public Sessions,” April 6). The county executive, who moderated this meeting, refused these requests, insisting that all public comments be made at breakout stations, staffed by Port Authority or city officials.

However, at these breakout stations, the staff only wanted to hear which of four proposed routing options people preferred. Thus far, during this socalled “public process,” there has been no actual public hearing for general comments, including the no-build option for those who may feel that such a $240 million project is unwarranted. It seems these breakout

We welcome your opinion

stations were set up to diffuse opposition to this project.

All other major Port Authority projects have included such a public hearing for general comments. Before this public process goes any further, the Port Authority board of directors should sponsor a general public hearing regarding all aspects of this proposed public transit project, including all transit mode options. GLENN A. WALSH

Mt. Lebanon

Letter writer Peter Floyd has the best idea to fix the Affordable Care Act since Bernie Sanders proposed Medicare for all (“Congress Can Find a Bipartisan Solution to Health Care,” March 31 letters).

The idea of offering Medicare to underserved rural areas is so simple and easy; it was overlooked by all the great minds who would cut people from health care rolls and make drastic cuts to services.

Please, give this idea a chance. This sounds like a way to insure all Americans. By offering Medicare, we can possibly detach our health care system from our employment, like the rest of the industrial world has done. I’m willing to bet that the majority of employers would be much happier if they didn’t have health insurance to deal with. LINDA BEAR Canton Township