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US lawmakers kick off debate over online privacy
US lawmakers opened a debate Tuesday over privacy legislation in the first step by Congress toward regulation addressing a series of troublesome data protection abuses by tech firms.
Most companies have said they would accept new federal legislation in the wake of bombshell revelations about Facebook and other online platforms' mishandling of users' personal data.
Lawmakers face several key choices, including whether to adopt the model in the European Union's data protection rules, and whether to pre-empt the strict privacy rules adopted by California.
A House of Representatives committee hearing on Tuesday is to be followed by a Senate panel Wednesday where industry and interest groups will make recommendations on US legislation.
Legislators are likely to find broad agreement on the need for greater transparency regarding the collection and sharing of data, and on tougher enforcement for violations.
Beyond that, sharp differences exist on how tightly tech firms should be reined in.
"A federal law must include basic rights for individuals to access, correct, delete and port their personal data," said Nuala O'Connor, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights group, in testimony prepared for the House Energy and Commerce panel.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by exaeta on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:22PM
It's one thing to restrict secret collection of data, but once the data is collected, disclosure restrictions generally run afoul of the First Amendment.
See, if you tell me your name is X, and the government says I cannot tell anyone else that, that is a speech restriction. Straightforward.
If congress pushes too hard, it will likely result in a case overruling the HIPPA precedents. There's no way to reconcile these speech restrictions with the so-called privacy interest. Privacy of this kind isn't constitutionally mandated, free speech is. As the examples become more egregious speech restrictions, the Supreme Court will be forced to revisit this issue.
Courts compartmentalizing our rights has done untold amounts of damage and many people aren't even aware of that fact. People are starting to wake up, however.
The Government is a Bird