The privacy power-players in 2021 aren’t federal lawmakers – they’re tech giants. However, the year is young, and lawmakers already have the enthusiasm to drive privacy progress. They just need to channel it into a federal privacy law.
The privacy power-players in 2021 aren’t federal lawmakers – they’re tech giants. However, the year is young, and lawmakers already have the enthusiasm to drive privacy progress. They just need to channel it into a federal privacy law.
Earlier this week, Jessica Davies succinctly summarized the current privacy situation: “Platforms, not regulators, are driving data privacy enforcement.” While state-level bills have proliferated – twenty-odd bills in 2021 alone – the lack of federal privacy legislation has allowed Google and Apple to set their own privacy standards.
Davies connects the dots between many of 2021’s big privacy stories. I’d add another point to the picture. We need federal lawmakers to pursue federal privacy legislation with the bipartisan enthusiasm that they pursue anti-monopoly issues against Big Tech. Not just because we want them to, but because the two issues are connected. When large companies set the rules of the road for privacy, they determine who can collect that precious commodity: data. Without federal standards, they take on the role that federal privacy legislation should, to their own competitive benefit.
In a nutshell, Google and Apple‘s privacy moves restrict third-party data processing while leaving their own first-party data practices unaffected. The updates drive up the value of data that they can collect in abundance but smaller businesses and start-ups cannot. Indeed, Google and Apple’s new requirements are not laws. But with each of them dominating their markets, they effectively determine the behavior of smaller businesses using their infrastructure.
These moves might appear as a welcome development to a privacy-concerned public. However, the companies’ updates work to their competitive advantage and leave privacy concerns with their own product largely unresolved.
Federal privacy legislation would help to level the playing field, setting data standards that don’t just benefit companies already at the top of the food chain. The legislative appetite is there. Lawmakers just need to see it.
In the past six months, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized Google and Apple for market dominance in their data practices. A Democrat-led report highlighted Big Tech’s gatekeeping practices in October. In December, 38 states’ attorneys general filed lawsuits against Google. And last month saw a GOP-backed bill against Google and Apple regarding their dominance in the app market.
A common thread through these claims is that Big Tech’s data practices leave no room for competitors. A federal data privacy law will not resolve all tensions here. But it would provide clarity in what kinds of data businesses can handle. Crucially, it won’t be a business calling the shots at the expense of smaller businesses’ bottom line. State-level regulations alone won’t be enough to keep smaller businesses competitive. As Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Consumer Technology association, recently emphasized:
“A state-by-state [approach to privacy regulation] is a killer to competition. It’s a barrier to entry for the smallest of companies and the greatest of ideas.”
Lawmakers just need to make the connection between their anti-competitive concerns and the void where a federal privacy law should be.
More regulation might sound like a roadblock to business, but codifying federal privacy standards where there are none would actually drive growth. A federal privacy law would help restore US competitiveness in the global market, where the EU is currently shaping the digital agenda. It would also give clear guidelines to businesses of all sizes, empowering them to innovate and be confident that they are respecting users’ data. To establish a more level playing field, foster growth for businesses, and address longstanding anti-competitive issues, a US federal privacy law belongs atop lawmakers’ 2021 priorities.
Ethyca hosted its second P.x session with the Fides Slack Community earlier this week. Our Senior Software Engineer Thomas La Piana gave a live walkthrough of the open-source privacy engineering platform, Fides 2.0. He demonstrated how users can easily deploy Fides and go from 0 to full DSR automation in less than 15 minutes. If you weren’t able to attend, here are the three main points addressed during the session.
Introducing consent management in Fides 2.0. With the coming state privacy laws in 2023, your business needs to have granular control over users’ data and their consent preferences. Learn more about how Fides can enable this for your business, for free.
Ethyca launched its privacy engineering meetup, P.x, where Fides Slack Community members met and interacted with the Fides developer team. Two of our Senior Software Engineers, Dawn and Steve, gave presentations and demos on the importance of data minimization, and how Fides can make data minimization easier for teams. Here, we’ll recap the three main points of discussion.
We enjoyed two great days of security and privacy talks at this year’s Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, aka SOUPS Conference! Presenters from all over the world spoke both in-person and virtually on the latest findings in privacy and security research.
At Ethyca, we believe that software engineers are becoming major privacy stakeholders, but do they feel the same way? To answer this question, we went out and asked 337 software engineers what they think about the state of contemporary privacy… and how they would improve it.
The UK’s new Data Reform Bill is set to ease data privacy compliance burdens on businesses to enable convenience and spark innovation in the country. We explain why convenience should not be the end result of a country’s privacy legislation.
Our team of data privacy devotees would love to show you how Ethyca helps engineers deploy CCPA, GDPR, and LGPD privacy compliance deep into business systems. Let’s chat!
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