Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Bill would give more control over personal data
Consumers could stop their information from being sold
The concept of companies making money by collecting his online data in stealthy fashion and then selling it doesn’t sit well with Thomas Garriga.
“I don’t think they should make a profit off me,” said Garriga, an Allentown resident who works in home care.
It appears a number of state lawmakers agree.
Democratic state Sens. Lisa Boscola of Northampton County and Maria Collett of Montgomery County are planning to file a bill — the latest among several in Harrisburg — on data privacy.
They think consumers should know who is collecting their personal data online, what data is being collected, and who is buying it. And, they think consumers should be able to stop those sales cold.
What’s at issue, according to Collett, are sales of things such as a person’s financial and medical data, birth date, address, cell number and family members’ names.
State lawmakers need to act, she said, because there has been nothing comprehensive at the federal level on how our data is shared.
The Collett-Boscola initiative is expected to be very similar to a bill filed in the House by Rep. Ed Neilson of Philadelphia.
“These people who buy and sell our information are not regulated,” Neilson said. “They are selling our stuff like crazy.”
Republicans on board with the general concept include York County Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill.
But Phillips-Hill, who chairs the Communications & Technology Committee, said lawmakers should start by fixing the problems state government has in protecting consumer data.
She pointed to a massive consumer data exposure last year allowed by a contractor hired by the state for COVID-19 contact tracing. The contractor, Insight Global, was fired after it allowed online access to names, phone numbers, sexual orientations and COVID-19 exposure status of state residents.
It makes sense, she said, to fix government data-protection weaknesses first and then create remedies for the private sector.
Consumers, PhillipsHill said, have a choice on whether to accept cookies from a website, apply for a particular credit card or choose a certain bank.
But, she said, “The government compels me to provide my information to them.”
Consumer protection proposals
Neilson’s bill would do the following — and Collett confirmed the bill she and Boscola will file will propose similar steps:
• Let consumers find out what personal information is being collected from them; learn whether it is being sold and to whom; decline or opt out of those sales; and access the information itself.
• Prevent businesses from discriminating against people who stopped the sale of their own information.
• Apply the new rules only to businesses that have annual revenue of more than $10 million or make half or more of their revenue from selling consumers’ information.
• Impose a blanket ban on the sale of all private data of people under age 16.
Collett said Senate Democrats have talked about data privacy a lot in caucus meetings.
She said she was disappointed no Republicans have come forward to cosponsor the initiative from her and Boscola.
But, she said, if the Republican-controlled Legislature makes the effort a priority, a data privacy bill could pass in the closing few months of the two-year legislative session.
Boscola said the measure would set privacy and notification standards for big tech companies profiting massively off personal data unbeknownst to most consumers.
‘The Wild West’
Rep. Rob Mercuri, an Allegheny County Republican who filed a data privacy bill in 2021, said there is an “anything goes” atmosphere online concerning personal data.
“It’s the Wild West,” Mercuri said.
Companies are free to sell it, mine it and really profit from it, he said.
Data about individual consumers that is sold includes websites visited, items shopped for online and location of the person throughout the day, Mercuri said.
He said such data really belongs to each citizen in Pennsylvania.
His bill would require larger companies and personal information aggregators to share more information with consumers about data that is gathered, tracked and sold.
The urgency for action by state lawmakers, Mercuri said, is at least as great as it was a year ago.
Every day that goes by, he said, is a day that that data is at risk.
Garriga, the Allentown resident, said that if anybody makes money off his data, he should get a chunk of it.
“They should at least pay people’” he said. “Give them a percentage if you are going to be making millions off of this.”
Candace Smith, a 21-yearold college student from
Lancaster, said the Boscola-Collett concept made sense. What doesn’t make sense, she said, is inaction.
“Do I see something wrong with nothing being done about it?” she said. “Yes. It’s a free-for-all.”
Jay Simmons, a 34-yearold mother of three who lives in Lehigh County, said that more than once she has been looking at something on Instagram and then — a short time later — had the same item advertised to her on Facebook.
She blames data sharing. “I want to know where my information is going and what it is being used for,” she said. “It would be good if we get some of this under control. Until enough people complain and say, ‘We don’t like this,’ they won’t pass a law about it.”