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New California Ballot Measure Demands Groundbreaking Privacy Rights (mercurynews.com)
Supporters gathered 625,000 signatures to put the "California Consumer Privacy Act" on the ballot in November -- far exceeding the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify. The Mercury News reports:
The proposed initiative aims to allow consumers to see what personal information companies are collecting about them and ask the companies to stop selling that information, and also seeks to hold businesses accountable for data breaches. "Today is a major step forward in our campaign, and an affirmation that California voters care deeply about the fundamental privacy protections provided in the California Consumer Privacy Act," said Alastair Mactaggart, the San Francisco real estate developer who is bankrolling the measure. He has spent $1.65 million on the effort, according to filings with the California secretary of state.
The measure is opposed by companies such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google, which have all donated $200,000 each to fight the measure. Facebook has also given $200,000 to the opposition. However, Facebook last month said it would leave the effort to fight the initiative.
The article notes that Facebook's decision to stop publicly opposing the privacy measure occurred "around the time Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was testifying to Congress about the company's Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal."
The measure is opposed by companies such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google, which have all donated $200,000 each to fight the measure. Facebook has also given $200,000 to the opposition. However, Facebook last month said it would leave the effort to fight the initiative.
The article notes that Facebook's decision to stop publicly opposing the privacy measure occurred "around the time Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was testifying to Congress about the company's Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal."
Companies should not be allowed to sell or share data on customers with any other company. Any data they collect should only be allowed to be used for their own internal business purposes. Sad it's come to this but enough has become enough.
Occasionally there are people with money that also have a conscience and do not only care about themselves. Shocking, I know. Don't they know that in true capitalism such behavior is anathema? These dangerous deviants sometimes even happen to live in the US.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You know what?
Fuck direct democracy and fuck California ballot measures.
This kind of stuff is what gets us into such a mess in the first place, where policymakers and regulators get their hands tied by people voting (or being asked to vote) on things that are beyond their level of knowledge to make a judgement call on, even if you're super informed about the issues.
In the next June election, we have the following ballot measures:
1. Authorizing a $4 billion bond (yes $4 Billion loan) for environmental / parks projects
2. Putting various procedural requirements on the decision to use cap-and-trade funds (what does that even mean/imply)
3. Including rain capture systems in property taxes
etc.etc.etc.
Why am I being asked to decide on these hugely consequential things (#1 + 2)? Why is the public being asked whether it's good to take out a $4B loan? Of course they're going to say yes, without a care in the world! Why is #3 even in the same category as the rest? A few years ago, there was even the ballot measure addressing disease testing of porn actors.
This is fucking ridiculous. It's time to stop believing the public has the knowledge and the attention span and more importantly the informed judgement to make these kinds of calls. Stop believing that you're qualified to decide things that aren't your job, and believe in effective government -- and give that government the tools and power to do so.
Democracy will be the death of democracy otherwise.