A coalition of privacy, civil rights and public interest groups sent a letter of concern about Facebook’s plan to introduce a digital currency.
The groups say Facebook’s new cryptocurrency raises “profound questions about national sovereignty, corporate power, consumer protection, competition policy, monetary policy, privacy and more.”
“The U.S. regulatory system is not prepared to address these questions. Nor are the regulatory systems of other nations or international institutions.”
They’re at it again. After losing in their attempt to torpedo net neutrality protections in California, Assembly members are back with a new and better way to make life easier for AT&T and Comcast.
VOIP may be a thing, but every message ultimately goes over wires controlled by a small number of corporations that don’t want regulations
California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’ AB 1366 would effectively keep California’s telecommunications network beyond the oversight of the California Public Utilities Commission or any other regulatory agency in California. The trick is to say that the CPUC can’t touch anything running with Internet Protocol, which now means pretty much all of the modern telecom network.
Today, 34 civil rights, consumer, and privacy organizations join in releasing public interest principles for privacy legislation, because the public needs and deserves strong and comprehensive federal legislation to protect their privacy and afford meaningful redress.
Irresponsible data practices lead to a broad range of harms, including discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and advertising. They also lead to data breaches and loss of individuals’ control over personal information. Existing enforcement mechanisms fail to hold data processors accountable and provide little-to-no relief for privacy violations.
The privacy principles outline four concepts that any meaningful data protection legislation should incorporate at a minimum:
Privacy protections must be strong, meaningful, and comprehensive.
Data practices must protect civil rights, prevent unlawful discrimination, and advance equal opportunity.
Governments at all levels should play a role in protecting and enforcing privacy rights.
Legislation should provide redress for privacy violations.
Twenty consumer protection, privacy and civil rights groups urged the California Legislature today to resist industry attempts to neuter California’s new online privacy bill under the guise of “cleaning it up.”
The rushed passage of then Assembly bill 375 right in front of a ballot initiative deadline left the bill language signed by Governor Brown a bit typo-rich, so another bill Senate Bill 1121 was incorporated for clean-up purposes.
Update: At 5pm on September 30, 7 hours before the deadline, Senate Bill 822 was signed into law, and California enacted the strongest net neutrality protections in the country, 10 months after the FCC repeal in December of 2017.
After a saga worthy of a Greek sailing epic, the California Legislature sent Senate Bill 822, the strongest statewide Net Neutrality bill yet to the states governor, Jerry Brown, for a signature.
The 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act is a law that will require technology corporations, such as Google and Facebook, to drastically alter their business models regarding data collection and privacy regulations. The legislation was unanimously approved by the state legislature on June 28 and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) the same day. The bill’s quick turn around resulted from pressures that legislators faced from an upcoming November ballot initiative, which would have created more stringent privacy rules. It will go into effect on January 1, 2020.Continue reading California Enacts Law Protecting Consumer Privacy, But There is Still a Ways to Go→
24 prominent social justice groups wrote to the United States Senate to highlight Supreme Court nominee Kavanugh’s disturbing take on the 1st Amendment as expressed in his dissent in USTA vs FCC, the case that upheld the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet ruling in all respects.
