After Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Hearing, US Is Considering Strict Law To Protect Data Privacy
The bill seeks to regulate data harvesting by online services like Facebook, and requires explicit opt-in consent from users in order to get at their data.The bill also requires these companies to notify users every time their data is used.
US senators Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey have introduced a new bill into US Congress called the CONSENT Act (Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions), shortly after Mark Zuckerberg¡¯s first senate hearing.
The bill seeks to regulate data harvesting by online services like Facebook, and requires explicit opt-in consent from users in order to get at their data. In addition, the bill also requires these companies to notify users every time their data is collected, shared, or used.
Images courtesy: Reuters
Most importantly, CONSENT would enable the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce data privacy. If passed, it would give the group a lot more bite to police Internet companies and advertisers. Indeed, the FTC is already expected to take action against Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica incident.
Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg Looked More Robot Than Human At Facebook's 1st US Senate Hearing Earlier Today
Indeed, Blumenthal questioned Zuckerberg at the hearing on whether the app that harvested peoples¡¯ data was in violation of Facebook¡¯s responsibility to the FTC. ¡°It certainly appears that we should have been aware that this app developer submitted a term that was in conflict with the rules of the platform,¡± Zuckerberg replied.
¡°What happened here was, in effect, willful blindness,¡± Blumenthal added. ¡°It was heedless and reckless, which in fact amounted to a violation of the FTC consent decree.¡±
Later on in the hearing, it was Markey that questioned whether Zuckerberg and Facebook would support legislation to regulate data gathering for all Internet companies. Zuckerberg, of course, was in no position to do anything except agree.
Anything the US (or the EU) does will have far-reaching effects for how big data and big tech companies protect and harvest user data, obviously. So we hope that some tough measures are taken to protect user privacy.
