The fact that he was a Verizon lawyer does not refute the things he's saying. It makes him an expert on the law in that domain, which is what qualifies him to be FCC chairman in the first place. Similar to how Alan Greenspan was a managing director on Wall Street before becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the career trajectory of virtually every other federal agency chairperson.

And the threat of ISPs selling our information is no greater than it was before "Net Neutrality". This is something that can be resolved as it has been with contract law and consumer choice -- same as with Google, Apple, etc. -- there's no need for the government to be involved at the federal level. In my mind, regulatory capture and censorship are much greater threats with the federal government becoming involved.

Edit: the laws we do need to focus on are the bans on municipal broadband. This is what's stifling competition at the local level and preventing more competition and better consumer choice. That is where the focus of effort should be, in my opinion.

What's next ? Supreme court judges "sponsored" by Monsanto ? Wouldn't really be any worse than this, really.

> This is something that can be resolved as it has been with contract law and consumer choice -- same as with Google, Apple, etc. --

> there's no need for the government to be involved at the federal level

You're talking about monopolists. If anybody could open a telco (which isn't possible for physical reasons) then perhaps this would be an argument.

But you cannot let monopolists "offer" contracts and expect a fair and balanced result.