Now, the minute details of your life are for sale on the Internet. It could be details about your children, your annual income, your medical conditions, your hopes and fears, your exercise habits, your race, your religion, your sex life — all of this and more is available, sometimes for fractions of a cent. Companies called data brokers buy information from companies with which they interact, or sometimes collect it themselves. Then they turn around and sell it to whoever wants a piece. There is no federal law prohibiting these brokers. But in calawmakers say want to do something about it.
For debate in the California Senate Tuesday, the delete the verb He will make a number of provisions that strengthen the Golden State Privacy regulations, some of them The strongest in the nation. Among other requirements, legislation It will allow you to force every data broker to delete the fruits of data harvesting in one device Simple operation.
“The deletion law is based on a very simple premise: Every California citizen should be able to control who has access to their personal information and what they can do with it,” said Sen. Josh Baker. press release Enter the deletion code.
Now, ca Data brokers are required by law to register with the state. California Consumer Privacy Act Most companies are required to delete the information they have collected about you. But you need to contact each of them separately. You also have to live in a fantasy world where you know the names of the one percent of companies that are spying on you for money. Complying with state regulations is troublesome and costly for data-hungry companies and the industry Likes to complain about it. Yet the worst online privacy crimes somehow persist in the shadow of these supposed crimes strict regulations.
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“The loophole in the law is big enough to push a few million stolen identities through and it’s time to close it,” Baker said. state senator It may be true, though its bill doesn’t quite live up to that big privacy promise. However, it is trying to solve a host of glaring problems.
biggest suggestion Change is that The deletion law will create a system where you can file one application that forces it all data broker in Industry to delete the details they harvest from your life. (Notice how I don’t call it “your data?” You don’t have all that data. Companies create data around you.)
now, Data brokers must delete the data they collect directly about you If you take the time to ask for it. However, they do not have to delete the data they get from other companies. The difference, the loophole Baker is talking about, is Important, because this is where most of their data comes from. Data brokers are currently required to register with the state Attorney General, but the deletion law would also force them to disclose information about what kind of data they have.
Baker wraps up the deletion law with a nice little privacy arc that spells out the consequences as well, enshrining civil penalties and administrative fines for offending statements to the bad boys.
Technology works with your information Life is like a barrel of oil, a commodity that can be traded and sold to increase corporate profits. data-Hungry companies like Google will tell you that this is exactly the way it should be If we want the internet to be glorious and free. This is only half true, at best.
In the data broker business in particular, you don’t get anything from the exchange. You’ve probably never heard of most of these companies, and they have no direct connection to your life as a consumer. They’re just helping other companies pull more profits out of you, using information about your life that you wouldn’t even know on the open market.
Who cares about privacySaid a straw man I invented to repeat the arguments I’m tired of hearing. “I have nothing to hide.” Stop it. Privacy isn’t just about secrets, it’s about power, the ability to manipulate, influence, and control.
In every exchange, whether financial, political or personal, you are playing a game. The person with the most information about the other has a huge advantage, and usually wins. It’s easy for corporations, politicians, and other financial institutions to get to know you, but it’s very difficult for you to get to know them because you don’t have the money or the time.
In the online world, protecting your “privacy” is really about protecting each of your other rights, whether you think of yourself as a consumer, a citizen, or just a human being.