Slashdot Mirror
EU Privacy Directive — Coming To the US?
An anonymous reader writes "An article over at ComputerWorld implies that the EU Privacy Directive, or something like it, will soon be signed into law here in the USA. The author seems to think this is a good thing, but I'm not so sure. From the article: 'We've finally come to realize that self-regulation by industry hasn't worked. The states have stepped in, creating the same situation of conflicting regulation that led to the creation of the EU privacy directive. The only question now is if the law that comes out of Congress will be a small step strictly focused on breaches, such as S.239, or whether we take the bigger step of forming a permanent committee under the FTC to monitor privacy as outlined by S.1178. Either way, the U.S. is finally moving away from the fractured environment of the past and toward a comprehensive privacy strategy.' Is it time for a national privacy law or 'Privacy Czar', or are we better off letting things be?"
As mentioned before, it would be fairly easy to fix with Opt In only privacy law. No one should be able to use my private info for anything without my express permission. Additionally, it should be illegal to require permission to be granted to use a businesses services. More specifically, they should only be able to keep the minimum amount of info, and only use it for the minimum purpose required to provide service to you. In no case should be they be allowed to trade or sell that info to others without your permission and perhaps compensation. If they can make money off of it, then you should have a right to charge them for it if you want to. They have a done some work with health info, but this privacy needs to be expanded to all personal info, and further enhanced across the board.
Ok, I know this is unlikely given our current culture and government, but it's what SHOULD be.
Vegetarian wasn't "eater of vegetables, eggs, cheese and stuff that's not really meat" its entemology is "person that eats live food" vegetus.
Vegan had to be invented to distinguish we vegetarians from the murderers who drink milk and eat cheese.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter