Summary:
Vera Jourova, the Justice Commissioner of the EU, has come to America to talk to regulators of data within the United States. She states that the data protection that the US has for its users is very low compared to the EU. Currently, both the EU and US share a system called the Privacy Shield; however, the EU significantly increased its strength on data protection laws with the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation Agreement just this May.
Analysis:
I believe that data protection is of the utmost importance, especially in the current situation with Facebook. The US should implement regulation similar to EU in order to prevent companies from selling too much user data. Additionally, they should let us know what data they are tracking and selling to other companies. Transparency is the most important thing in this type of situation.
Questions:
- Do you personally think that the US should have stricter data protection laws?
- What effect do you think these laws will have on large corporations that heavily rely on selling user data like Facebook or Snapchat?
- What regulation do you think should be put in place?
7 comments:
Do you personally think that the US should have stricter data protection laws?
-I believe that data protection is more necissary ebcause of all the incidents that have occured with data leakage on media or in buisnesses. it is necissary to protect peoples privacy
What effect do you think these laws will have on large corporations that heavily rely on selling user data like Facebook or Snapchat?
-it will improve their quality of how they protect their users.THe quality had never been good due tot he fact it is free and doesnt necissarily gauruntee a good quality since the users do not pay for something.
What regulation do you think should be put in place?
Data protection should definitely be stricter since data usage by companies is definitely at a higher risk in the US than other countries, as pointed out by Jourova. American citizens have a right to keep their information secret and should not have their private info be subjected to being sold by social media companies. If more restrictive regulations were to take place, I believe that corporations would lose a significant amount of their income from selling data, however, the trust in these internet companies would rise and could bring in an influx of new users who feel safe using technology like this which could raise their income, but maybe not so much. Some states are already implementing regulations that limit companies' ability to share user data, like California's Online Eraser Law. The US should pass legislation similar to this and should follow EU's footsteps as well.
International laws of the internet need to be put in place to deal with this. The US needs to focus on security because clearly the EU is doing plenty better than us. Stricter laws would allow for individuals to keep their private lives and data, private. Given there is some chance that an entire election was swayed because of data stealing, laws need to be put into place to prevent this and save democracy. People are more easily influenced than we have thought. Personal data needs to be protected so others don't attack based on psychological data.
I agree with the above comments; I'd like to see stronger cyber security measures, especially with sites that handle sensitive information (Social Security numbers, credit card information). I think the US should more aggressively address cyber security issues, consider that there have been many cyber attacks recently (and not just on American companies, but I guess that's all that matters to Congress). But I'd like to play the devil's advocate.
Like Miguel said, a lot of companies make profit from using or selling user data, even if it's not ethical. There is probably some indicator of data collection or harvest in the lengthy "Terms and Conditions" we breeze through, if at all, and a lot of users volunteer their personal information without thinking about what it's used for. A social media site is not responsible for what information the user decides to contribute. For the most part, sites like Facebook and Snapchat can make claims to the data users volunteer on their profile and do with it what they wish.
This mindset concerns me, but I believe it's a valid argument we have yet to address. "Terms and Conditions" contracts are infamously long, with enough fine print already, and I think the most important regulations we can take first is establishing transparency laws between consumers and social media sites.
I do think that the US should have stricter data protection laws because it is important for social media users to use it without fear. Based on these large corporations that rely on selling user data, they will most likely oppose since it hurts their company in both the short-term and long-term. The US should definitely use the EU as a role model. Making social media safer for everyone will increase public interest as well as increase its success. I also think that companies need to be more clear about what exactly users are sharing with their company, but also users need to be more careful about clicking "I agree" button because it may have key information that they probably didn't notice.
I actually really like Tilman’s ideas for international internet privacy laws. I think that that would actually be within the scopes of an international body like the United Nations. Not only does the lack of protection pose a threat to identity threat, but it is a general intrusion on privacy that many would agree with on a moral level. While businesses that make money off of selling personal information will make less, steps should be made for ethics at the sake of profit. We have child labor laws, minimum wage and many other laws that detract from profit for the sake of morals, so this situation should be no different.
I do think that the US should have stricter data protection laws because it's important that people can use the internet without fear and shouldn't be afraid that big corporations would infringe on their privacy. These laws will likely negatively impact large corporations that heavily rely on selling user data because of the advertisement and revenue that they generate because of their data users. I know no one really reads the terms and conditions, but maybe social media platforms can include a required audio of the safety issues with media, so you can hear it without skipping to pressing agree.
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