Bringing Back Privacy

[Commentary] Our privacy framework no longer works. It must be changed. Now. Let’s begin by requiring “opt-in.” Before any business shares our personal data, we should have to grant it permission to do so, up-front and right at the outset. Then let’s simplify those ridiculous “terms of service agreements” that require our acceptance before we can even open up an app. Going a step further, let’s require any site that wishes to change its terms of service to notify us that it is doing so AND tell us what those changes will be, BEFORE they are implemented. Getting changes like these implemented is a two-step process, one legislative, one regulatory: First, Congress must pass a comprehensive privacy framework that guarantees users control over their data. Companies must be required, not urged, to do these things. Secondly, regulators must be empowered to implement and enforce these policies. Finally, let’s realize there are other dimensions to privacy protection that need to be part of our discussion. 

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. In 2012, Copps joined Common Cause to lead its Media and Democracy Reform Initiative.]