Nobody reads privacy policies. This senator wants lawmakers to stop pretending we do

guest · Jun 20, 2020

Nobody reads privacy policies. This senator wants lawmakers to stop pretending we do
June 18, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/18/data-privacy-law-sherrod-brown/

It’s one of the Internet’s big little lies.

When was the last time you actually read a privacy policy? Most of the time, clicking “I agree” is just a speed bump to getting onto an app or website. Even when I make a project out of reading the privacy policies and terms of service for credit cards or apps, I can barely understand all the places my data goes.
Click to expand...

So I was intrigued when Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called me recently to say he wants lawmakers to stop pretending like we do. “Nobody reads the small print,” he said. “You end up giving up far too much data.”
Congress has been debating a consumer privacy law since before there were Web browsers, but the United States still doesn’t have one.

On Thursday, Brown broke with nearly every past proposal from Democrats and Republicans alike to suggest a more radical idea: allowing companies to take our data only when it’s “strictly necessary.”
Click to expand...

“This is the only way forward,” said Frank Pasquale, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law who was briefed on the proposal. “Rather than saying, ‘Everything is permitted, and we’ll try to legislate against certain things,’ it goes in the opposite direction.”

Brown’s bill “is a new and welcome paradigm,” said U.S. Public Interest Research Group senior director Ed Mierzwinski, who was briefed on the proposal. “This is the first bill that recognizes consumers can’t control the use of their information.”
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Nobody reads privacy policies. This senator wants lawmakers to stop pretending we do

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

Nobody reads privacy policies. This senator wants lawmakers to stop pretending we do

guest Guest

Useful Searches