US Senators Introduce Social Media Privacy And Consumer Rights Act

[Lucian Armasu]

Senators John Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar introduced a new privacy rights bill following the introduction of Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal's "CONSENT Act." However, unlike the CONSENT Act, the new bill doesn't have an opt-in requirement.

US Senators Introduce Social Media Privacy And Consumer Rights Act : Read more

 

[Giroro]

If this congress actually cared about privacy, then they would restore net neutrality and repeal the blatantly unconstitutional CLOUD act.

Based on what's been coming out of congress in the last couple years, I am immediately suspicious. I wouldn't be surprised if the language of the bill actually strips away more consumer protections than it protects.

 

[stdragon]

Based on what's been coming out of congress in the last couple years, I am immediately suspicious.

Uh oh. You just got woke! "Agents - he took the Red Pill, nab him!"

In all seriousness, this has been going on far longer then just a "last couple of years".

Rememeber that Wannacry outbreak used against the UK medical facilities? Yeah, you can thank the NSA for hoarding known Windows exploits, not telling anyone about it, then they (NSA) themselves got hacked and the tools used against all of us. And it doesn't start there, it goes back more recently to PRISM and even an attempt at a hardware backdoor via the Clipper chip back in the 90s.

Gets better - So remember when the Zuck got grilled in front of Congress? Yeah, he donated to the members ranging in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in total. Oh yeah, pure impartiality right there...</sarcasm>

 

[turkey3_scratch]

If this congress actually cared about privacy, then they would restore net neutrality and repeal the blatantly unconstitutional CLOUD act.

How is net neutrality directly related to privacy, though? So far it's been a pretty long time since net neutrality has been repealed, and everything seems to be going fine here in America. If, of course, stuff has been happening I have not been seeing (since I don't follow all the news) I'd be happy if you'd point me to it.

 

[ynhockey]

This proposal is actually better than GDPR in terms of consent. I work for a software company that (among other things) builds solutions for GDPR, and the consent part can get frankly ridiculous. Like if you want to buy a shirt from a small online clothing retailer (can even be a mom-and-pop business), you need to agree to 5 or 10 separate clauses related to privacy, because they are the minimum required to technically run the store online (cookies, order history, etc.), and more if you want to approve all the "recommended" things (e.g. login history). Not to mention there are some apparent contradictions with other regulations in non-EU countries, e.g. about keeping transaction history.

As much as privacy is valuable, an opt-out approach protects it almost as much, but also doesn't pollute simple online processes like registration, shopping, etc.