Page 61 - Bloomberg Businessweek - November 19, 2018

Bloomberg Businessweek The Year Ahead 2019 Technology

present in the GDPR, which requires companies a drop in the bucket,” says Laura Moy, executive
to get permission from each user before cook- director of the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy
ies can track how long they spend on each page & Technology. She and other consumer advocates
and where they go next. Some of the stronger are calling for a federal agency focused solely on
plans under discussion in the U.S., including the privacy and empowered to levy fines that could
Consent Act, introduced by Democratic Senator make user privacy a CEO-level concern. “Tech
Ed Markey of Massachusetts, widen that approval giants like Facebook and Google have incredi-
requirement to explicitly include the creepier bly large revenues,” Moy says. “They don’t have
aspects of internet tracking. That might mean the the right incentives to spend a truly substantial
Facebooks of the world would have to constantly amount of it ensuring privacy is built into every-
ask users’ permission to follow them around thing they do.”
other parts of the internet, monitor them offline, The most significant flashpoint in 2019 may
and build elaborate behavioral profiles of them. be what policy experts call “uniformity,” the
(A 2016 ProPublica report found that Facebook idea that data privacy standards ought to be
Inc. was classifying users under at least 52,000 constant whether you’re Facebook or Hertz
interest categories with such unsettling specific- Corp., and whether you’re in California or
ity as “Pretending to Text in Awkward Situations” Connecticut. “The idea that we’re going to
and “Breastfeeding in Public;” Facebook has said have 50 or 51 different privacy laws is just not
that users can opt out of some data sharing.) how the internet works,” says Beckerman, the
Europe under GDPR shows that most users lobbyist, who’s demanding that any national pri-
will simply click “OK” and proceed as usual. Still, vacy law preempt California’s. “This needs to
“any consent is an improvement over the status be done in a way that doesn’t prohibit different
quo of doing it secretly,” says Adam Schwartz, a business models,” he says. “Everyone is using
senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier data in different ways.” Moy says she worries a
Foundation, a consumer advocate. The California broad preemption could do away with valuable
law stops short of “opt-in” consent but does man- stronger laws, such as protections for the infor- 27
date that all websites include an “opt-out” but- mation patients share with doctors, or students
ton for data monetization, such as a link on their with education providers.
homepage allowing users to say “Do Not Sell My Neither industry nor consumer advocates
Personal Information.” It’s one reason Facebook expect a sweeping federal privacy bill to get an
and Google lobbied against the state law. up-or-down vote in 2019. The year ahead is about $1�6b
Enforcement is another key issue. Even if setting the terms of that debate. Statehouses will
Washington could enact a national privacy law, be the principal battlegrounds for now, with
it would mean nothing without aggressive con- California’s law serving as a model for data rules.
sequences for companies that fail to keep their The longer Washington’s laissez-faire approach
platforms abuse-free. While Facebook faces a persists, says former Facebook policy adviser
potential $1.6 billion penalty for its latest data Dipayan Ghosh, the more internet platforms will
breach under the GDPR, in the U.S. the social be able to build up their data infrastructure, mak-
network probably won’t be fined a penny. ing them harder to dismantle. “They’re only going ● The fine Facebook
One of the last times the Federal to get more and more powerful,” says Ghosh, a faces in Europe for its
Trade Commission punished social media researcher at Harvard’s Shorenstein latest data breach. It’s
unlikely to be punished
a big tech company for pri- Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. He at all in the U.S.
vacy infractions—Google in expresses alarm at the companies’ often opaque
2012—the $22.5 million and “borderline addictive” software.
penalty amounted to Without greater data protections, Ghosh says,
less revenue than the consumers can expect another year filled with
company made in hacks, leaks, and cover-ups, with no real conse-
four hours. quences for the Valley. “If Facebook undergoes
“There’s a risk Cambridge Analytica 2, there are no direct reper- FROM TOP: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES; PHOTOGRAPH BY 731
that tech compa- cussions,” he says. “It doesn’t have to inform
nies become so consumers. It doesn’t have to compensate con-
big and power- sumers. It doesn’t have to really do much for
ful that any pri- consumers at all.” That is to say, by failing to act,
vacy violation for Congress will be picking a few big winners and a
them amounts to whole lot of losers. <BW> �Austin Carr