Privacy in school, at home, and at work has become a very hot topic over the past several years due to the increased amount of our everyday activities that are being digitized. Earlier today, The White House released an administration discussion draft of the President's vision for enhanced consumer privacy protections. Unfortunately, the proposal appears to fall short.
According to Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, the draft is "a big victory for the tech industry because it really sidelines the FTC and removes it as an effective force." Alvaro Bedoya, director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown's law school believes that Obama's bill may preempt state laws, in favor of letting companies collect what they want as long as they maintain some level of transparency. These concerns are very real and demonstrates that The White House needs to rethink its approach.
The FTC also weighed in and stated, "[w]e are pleased that the Administration has made consumer privacy a priority, and this legislative proposal provides a good starting point for further discussion. However, we have concerns that the draft bill does not provide consumers with the strong and enforceable protections needed to safeguard their privacy. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to strengthen the proposal.”
I agree with above sentiments and hope this draft spurs a robust conversation on digital privacy and technology. Absent stronger privacy protections, digital platform users will be discriminated against based upon their age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, physical/mental impairments, etc....There needs to be not only mandatory industry transparency but also stronger regulation on data collection and utilization practices. Federal legislation should be a floor and not a ceiling for privacy protections and the FTC needs to be provided enhanced regulatory enforcement powers.
I want my children to grow up with the same expectation of privacy I had as a kid and I don't want them to fear that their emails, Internet searches, and digital activity will be utilized to create robust profiles about them which will affect their schooling, career prospects, and ability to obtain insurance, etc...
I fight for our digital privacy because it is the right thing to do. I encourage those who believe we have an expectation of privacy in the Digital Age to contact The White House and their federal and state lawmakers to tell them to make stronger digital privacy protections a priority this year.
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