California and web privacy
With the federal government moving backward on privacy protections, California is looking at two competing ways to impose its own rules for the collection of personal information online. The more farreaching proposal is the California Consumer Privacy Act, a ballot measure that would amend the state Constitution to require websites to give users more control over data collected about them. But under a deal struck by its lead sponsor, the measure will be withdrawn from the November ballot if the Legislature passes and Gov. Jerry Brown signs a similar but more limited proposal, AB 375, by Thursday afternoon.
It’s a close call, but all in all, AB 375 is the better way to go.
The federal government really should be the one establishing privacy rights online. Congress repealed online privacy rules last year, however, and the Federal Trade Commission can do little more than force websites to honor the commitments in their terms of service. That’s not much help.
Meanwhile, personal information has become the fuel powering much of the internet, even as users remain largely in the dark about how it is being used. That’s a problem, given that much of what’s offered and shown to you online is shaped by what companies glean about your life, your predilections and your finances from the digital bread crumbs you scatter as you use the internet. Such data could conceivably be used, for instance, to trace where you go and whom you see, or to determine who might be desperate for an infusion of cash.
Both AB 375 and the ballot measure would give California internet users the right to know what information is being collected about them online, to delete it if they wish, to find out whether it’s being sold, and to opt out of such sales. The ballot measure would also bar companies from withholding or downgrading services when individuals refuse to share data. The bill is more nuanced on that, allowing companies to offer better services under certain circumstances to consumers who agree to share their data.
The ballot measure’s main advantage is in enforcement: It would give consumers the right to sue when companies misuse their data, while AB 375 would confine that power to the state attorney general. But it will be far easier for policymakers to adjust AB 375 to fast-evolving internet business models than tweak the constitutional changes wrought by the ballot measure.
Beyond that, the ballot measure faces considerable opposition from deep-pocketed internet and telecommunications companies. Lawmakers would be wise to support the bird in hand, AB 375, which poses no risk of flying off in November.