Online privacy
California outlines ways to comply with upcoming privacy law
Companies must notify CA residents of their data privacy rights in plain language and must verify people’s identities before releasing data. CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced draft regulations that also spell out ways people can ask for their personal information to be deleted from company databases. The rules are being drafted to implement a landmark state privacy law that takes effect in Jan. The law allows CA residents to learn what information companies hold on them, request deletion and opt out of the sale of their personal information.
Americans and Digital Knowledge
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that Americans’ understanding of technology-related issues varies greatly depending on the topic, term or concept. Some findings:
A push for comprehensive privacy legislation is in full force in Washington, D.C. Aside from the contents of a new law, legislators will need to decide on a key question: who should have the responsibility and power to enforce a new federal privacy standard?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), charged with policing unfair and deceptive business practices, is currently the primary federal agency responsible for protecting the privacy of commercial data. Additionally, the FTC enforces some specific privacy laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Google Draws House Antitrust Scrutiny of Internet Protocol
Congressional antitrust investigators are scrutinizing plans by Google to use a new internet protocol because of concerns that it could give the company a competitive advantage by making it harder for others to access consumer data. Investigators for the House Judiciary Committee asked Google for information about its “decision regarding whether to adopt or promote the adoption” of the protocol, which the company said is aimed at improving internet security.
We live in an increasingly urban and networked world. As our social and economic lives move online, we are beginning to generate a wealth of data that can reveal important things about our movements and behaviors. The financial inclusion sector is already relying on digital footprints to offer banking services to populations previously deemed un-creditworthy. The humanitarian sector, meanwhile, is turning to social media and cell phone data to locate disaster survivors. Can these models be applied to land and property rights?
Agenda:
A Tax on Silicon Valley Is A Dumb Way to Solve Digital Divide, But Might Be A Smart Way To Protect Privacy.
What sort of a tax on Silicon Valley (and others) might make sense from a social policy perspective? What about a tax on the sale of personal information, including the use of personal information for ad placement? To be clear, I’m not talking about a tax on collecting information or on using the information collected. I’m talking a tax on two-types of commercial transactions; selling information about individuals to third parties, or indirectly selling information to third parties via targeted advertising. It would be sort of a carbon tax for privacy pollution.
How Congress plans to pressure Big Tech for Fall 2019
How lawmakers plan to keep the pressure on Big Tech heading into Fall 2019.
Recent congressional hearings and data breaches have prompted legislators, advocacy groups, and business leaders to call for broad federal privacy legislation. Furthermore, congressional leaders in both parties have expressed an interest in taking up privacy legislation and various members of Congress have released drafts of bills intended to spark discussion. As Congress returns to session in September, legislators will face continuing questions about how to develop federal legislation to protect personal information.
States to Launch Google, Facebook Antitrust Probes
State attorneys general are formally launching separate antitrust probes into Facebook and Alphabet’s Google unit starting the week of Sept 9, putting added pressure on tech giants already under federal scrutiny. New York Attorney General Letitia James said that her office was organizing a bipartisan, multi-state probe into social media company Facebook. “We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook’s actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices, or increased the price of advertising,” she said.