Readers React: We’ve been oversharing online all these years, and <i>now</i> we’re surprised by a lack of privacy?

To the editor: George Skelton gives good reasons why the internet should be regulated. But in our current anti-regulation, pro-business environment, any new regulations enacted may be deliberately toothless. (“The internet is no longer an infant that needs freedom to innovate — it’s grown into a monster and needs to be restricted,” April 12)

So we should realize that our personal information may never be safe on the for-profit internet, and we may not be given adequate legal redress when our privacy is breached. We could either stop posting our personal information or stop complaining.

We have been burying our money in our backyards and telling the thieves where it is. It’s our own fault.

Thomas Mann, Pasadena

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To the editor: The exploitation of our personal data by internet companies isn’t about privacy. After all, I know that every post, text and tweet I make is sent first to equipment owned by somebody else, so I don’t expect absolute privacy.

But if those companies sell my personal data, I want my reasonable share of that money. I don’t want bans, just royalties.

Dave Suess, Redondo Beach

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