What Facebook won’t do, state lawmakers must
When you sign up for Facebook it is too hard to figure out how to control the dissemination of your private data.
Mark Zuckerberg won’t provide the simple fix because it cuts into the billionaire’s bottom line. Congress won’t do it because it doesn’t have the political will or know-how to do it right.
It’s up to California to provide a model for the nation.
Voters might have the opportunity to begin that process if the California Consumer Privacy Act qualifies for the November ballot. The initiative would give Californians the right to know what data companies are collecting from them and who has bought or obtained their private information. It also would give users the ability to opt out without impacting the services they receive.
Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook is ending its opposition to the ballot measure. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Facebook to actively support it.
We hope proponents of the proposed proposition gather the required number of signatures to put it on the ballot this fall. It would trigger a window of opportunity for the Legislature to examine the initiative and adopt an even better, broader law. If the backers of the measure agree, they could then drop the initiative from the ballot.
Assemblyman Ed Chau, DArcadia, should jump at the opportunity. As chair of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Agency, he tried and failed to pass internet privacy legislation last year. His AB 375 went down in flames at the last minute because of lobbying by tech firms. The most obvious improvement Chau could lead would be requiring users be asked to opt in before their personal data is used, rather than having it circulated unless users opt out.
We said four years ago that tech’s failure to support a federal online bill of rights would come back to haunt the industry. The day of reckoning has arrived.
Consumers’ interest in protecting their private data has grown by leaps and bounds in recent weeks. A Gallup poll conducted immediately prior to Zuckerberg’s trip last week to Capitol Hill showed 43 percent of users are “very concerned” and 31 percent are “somewhat concerned” about how Facebook is collecting and using their private data.
Zuckerberg told Congress that there has been no dramatic dropoff in users, but a survey by Creative Strategies claims that 9 percent of Americans have deleted their Facebook accounts in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The last time California updated its privacy laws was a decade ago, when the focus was on telemarketers. In the meantime, the likes of Facebook and Google have made billions and billions at the expense of users’ privacy.
It’s appalling that the country that gave the world the internet is the only nation in the developed world without fundamental consumer protections over the collection and dissemination of users’ private information.
Clearly, California is going to have to lead the way to get anything done. And the tech industry should get on board before its reputation sinks any lower.