Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano (Mass.) delivered an impassioned speech Tuesday on the House floor arguing against the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission's internet privacy rules, when he revealed that he bought underwear on the internet last week.
"What the heck are you thinking?" Capuano asked. "What is in your mind? Why would you want to give out any of your personal information to a faceless corporation for the sole purpose of them selling it?"
"Give me one good reason why Comcast should know what my mother's medical problems are," Capuano added.
He went on to discuss how he found out about the medication that his mother and children were using by searching the internet, which is when he pivoted to underwear.
"Just last week I bought underwear on the internet. Why should you know what size I take? Or the color, or any of that information?" Capuano asked.
"Please give me one, not two, one good reason why all these people here, why all these people watching would want Comcast or Verizon to have information unless they give it to them," Capuano said.
"We're talking medical information. We're talking passwords. We're talking financial information. We're talking college applications," Capuano added. "There is nothing in today's society that every one of us doesn't do every day on the internet, and yet Comcast is going to get it."
Capuano went on to reference his underwear purchase again and asked what Comcast is going to do with it.
"What are they going to do with it?" Capuano asked. "Kind of look at it and say, 'Oh yeah, hey, Mike takes a size 38.'"
"They will sell it to the underwear companies," Capuano said "'Hey, he bought this kind of underwear, he likes this color. Let's give him ads.' By the way, most of those ads are useless 'cause I already bought the underwear. I don't need anymore."
Capuano concluded his statement by urging members of Congress to leave Capitol Hill for five minutes and ask three people on the street whether they agreed with what Comcast was doing.