Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 30 deceMber 2019
Calif. vastly expands digital privacy. Will people use it?

By RACHEL LERMAN ence, the chance to pass
AP Technology Writer amendments, and above
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — all time to slow down what
Forty million Californians seemed to be a runaway
will soon have sweeping train.
digital-privacy rights stron- "I always knew I was signing
ger than any seen before up for a fight," Mactaggart
in the U.S., posing a signifi- says .
cant challenge to Big Tech The developer agreed to
and the data economy it pull the initiative off the bal-
helped create. lot and have it introduced
So long as state residents as a bill. In slightly changed
don't mind shouldering — or weakened, per critics
much of the burden of ex- — form, it passed. Gone,
ercising those rights, that is. for instance, was a provi-
Come Wednesday , rough- sion that would have al-
ly one in 10 Americans will lowed people to sue when
gain the power to review companies improperly de-
their personal information clined to hand over or de-
collected by large com- lete data.
panies around the world, The coming year will pro-
from purchase histories and In this Oct. 8, 2019, file photo a woman types on a keyboard in New York. vide the first evidence of
location tracking to com- Associated Press how much protection the
piled "profiles" that slot peo- capital P back into privacy or to keep it in a way you'd add up depending on how CCPA actually offers —
ple into categories such as for all Americans." "reasonably expect" them many people are affected. and how thoroughly Cali-
religion, ethnicity and sexu- California's law is the big- to. The law does offer stron- fornians will embrace it.
al orientation. Starting Jan- gest U.S. effort yet to con- "It's more of a 'right to re- ger protection for children, Among other limitations,
uary 1, they can also force front " surveillance capital- quest and hope for dele- for instance by forbidding the law doesn't really stop
these companies — includ- ism," the business of profit- tion,'" says Joseph Jerome, the sale of data from kids companies from collecting
ing banks, retailers and, of ing from the data that most a policy director at privacy under 16 without consent. personal information or limit
course, tech companies — Americans give up — often group Common Sense Me- "The last thing you want is how they store it. If you ask
to stop selling that informa- unknowingly — for access dia/Kids Action. for any company to think a company to delete your
tion or even to delete it in to free and often ad-sup- A more fundamental issue, that we're going to soft on data, it can start collecting
bulk. ported services. The law is though, is that Californians letting you misuse kids' per- it again next time you do
The law defines data sales for anyone ever weirded are largely on their own in sonal information," Becerra, business with it.
so broadly that it covers al- out when an ad popped figuring out how to make the attorney general, said Mary Stone Ross, incom-
most any information shar- up for the product they use of their new rights. To at a press conference in ing associate director of
ing that provides a benefit were just searching on, or make the law effective, December. the Electronic Privacy In-
to business, including data who wondered just how they'll need to take the ini- Many of the CCPA's quirks formation Center and co-
transfers between corpo- much privacy they were tiative to opt out of data trace back to the round- author of the original bal-
rate affiliates and with third giving up by signing into sales, request their own in- about way it became law lot initiative, worries that
party "data brokers" — mid- the briefly popular face- formation, and file for dam- in the first place. A few CCPA might just unleash
dlemen who trade in per- changing tool FaceApp. ages in the case of data years ago, San Francis- a firehose of data on con-
sonal information. But there are catches ga- breaches. co real estate developer sumers. "A business could
It remains unclear how it will lore. The law — formally "If you aren't even reading Alastair Mactaggart asked actually drown a consumer
affect the business of tar- known as the California privacy agreements that a friend who worked at a in information so the impor-
geted advertising, in which Consumer Privacy Act, or you are signing, are you re- tech company if he should tant pieces are lost," she
companies like Facebook CCPA — seems likely to ally going to request your be concerned about news says.
amass reams of personal draw legal challenges, data?" asks Margot Kamin- reports on how much com- There's a way to avoid that
data and use it to direct some of which could raise ski, an associate professor panies knew about him. He by just asking for which
ads to specific groups of constitutional objections of law at the University of expected an innocuous categories of information
people. Facebook says it over its broad scope. It's Colorado who studies law answer. a company holds, such as
doesn't share that personal also filled with exceptions and technology. "Will you "If you knew how much we demographics, preferenc-
information with advertis- that could turn some seem- understand it or sift through knew about you, you'd be es or interests. But it's not
ers. ingly broad protections into it when you do get it?" terrified," he says the friend clear how many will know
Still, because it applies to coarse sieves, and affects State residents who do told him . to do that.
any company that meets only information collected make that effort, but find With help, Mactaggart pro- The law's biggest impact,
a threshold for interacting by business, not govern- that companies reject their duced a ballot initiative in fact, may lie in how it re-
with state residents, the ment. requests or offer only halting that would let California quires companies to track
California law might end For instance, if you're and incomplete responses, voters implement new pri- what data they have,
up serving as a de facto alarmed after examining have no immediate legal vacy rules. Although initially where they keep it, and
national standard. Early the data that Lyft holds on recourse. The CCPA de- a long shot, the proposal how to get it to people
signs of compliance have you, you can ask the com- fers enforcement action to quickly gained steam amid when requested, says Jen
already started cropping pany to delete it. Which it the state attorney general, news of huge data breach- King, director of consumer
up in the form of "Don't sell will legally have to do — un- who won't be empowered es and privacy leaks. privacy at Stanford Law
my personal information" less it claims some informa- to act until six months after That drew the attention of School's Center for Inter-
links at the bottom of many tion meets one of the law's the law takes effect. Silicon Valley, whose big net and Society. That ef-
corporate websites. many exceptions, among When the state does take companies considered the fort alone, which can be
"If we do this right in Califor- them provisions that allow action, though, it can fine ballot initiative too risky. substantial, might cause
nia," says California attor- companies to continue businesses up to $7,500 for Moving the proposal into corporations to reconsider
ney general Xavier Becer- holding information need- each violation of the law — the normal legislative pro- how much data they de-
ra, the state will "put the ed to finish a transaction charges that could quickly cess would give them influ- cide to hold onto.q