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California Lawmakers Pass Bill To Give Consumers Broad Privacy Rights (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A major privacy bill on the table in California on Thursday could reshape how Silicon Valley does business. If the bill becomes law, people living in the Golden State can tell companies to stop collecting or selling their personal data. In two votes Thursday, the state's Senate and Assembly both passed the bill in an effort to get it on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk by the end of the day. The tight deadline comes courtesy of an even stricter voter initiative that will appear on California ballots this November if lawmakers can't get the bill through by 5 p.m. PT Thursday. The bill -- AB 375, or the California Consumer Privacy Act -- turns the tech world's business model on its head by letting regular internet users ask for the data a company has collected on them and who it's sold that data to. That alone could be eye-opening for consumers. Most people understand their online activity is being tracked for targeted advertising, but we don't have a broad understanding of what data's being used. If Gov. Jerry Brown signs this bill on Thursday, Californians will have increased control over their personal data -- and one less thing to vote on in November.

5 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Please let this start a tidal wave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    GDPR for the win! Just copy it.

  2. You can't control, what others remember by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Attempts to control, what other people remember about you, are tyrannical and (until very recently) unprecedented.

    Once you tell other people something, the information is theirs. There is no basis to allow control of other people's heads, notebooks, or computers...

    The only remotely sensible thing — for the authoritarianism-minded — is to ban discrimination based on the customer's unwillingness to share data not essential to the service provision. For example, an auto-repair facility does not need your home address — and so can't refuse to repair your car because you wouldn't fill out the form in full.

    Similarly, sites like Quora may be banned from enforcing the "real name" policy.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:You can't control, what others remember by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Attempts to control, what other people remember about you, are tyrannical and (until very recently) unprecedented.

      Once you tell other people something, the information is theirs. There is no basis to allow control of other people's heads, notebooks, or computers...

      That's not what privacy is about anymore. What right does facebook, google, etc have to spy on my every move? To log every website I visit, every person I call, every place I go and store that information indefinitely. I didn't "tell" Verizon a damn thing when I called a suicide prevention line, yet they databased the fact that I did and offer it for sale, just like they have been selling my location, and yours, for years. I didn't "tell" facebook anything when I liked a pro abortion page, yet they feel entitled to the information.

      These aren't friends I'm confiding in, they are creepy stalkers desperately trying to find out anything they can about everyone - and controlling wether or not we allow stalkers to aggressively stalk their victims sure as hell isn't "unprecedented". Fuck these vulchers.

  3. Re:Privacy comes with a price. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I live in California. It'll never split.
    They've talked about that for decades.
    If we did split, I'd want to start charging those mooches in LA for taking our water (from northern california).
    We're always in a perpetual drought because those idiots decided to live in a desert.
    As for where you'd want to live, my guess is you'd want to go where Sacramento is. That'll be Northern California. I assume the laws would follow the capitol.

  4. There is no "left wing" USA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    German here.
    You guys are so extreme on the right side, that right wing extremism (like the "democatic" arm of your corporate oligarchy) seems "left" in comparison to the completely batshit insane (like the even more neocon "republican" arm).

    And I can prove it:
    Look up Reagan's policy decisions.
    Now look up the "democrats"' policy decisions.
    Reagan is far left of the latter. QED.

    I'm German and I see all the patterns of how it started here in your country. (We have years of mandatory history lessons on that in schools here.)
    Economic depression, crumbling empire, people longing to feel pride again and lookinh for a scapegoat, leader that is good at sweet-talking them, while being extreme and radical at heart. (Like Bushobamatrump.)
    Plus a war-based economy and concentration camps ready... err, I mean " black sites" and Cheney's massive prisons. Aaand ALL the hairs go up on me.

    Please be safe, guys. We don't want you to dig in the rubble looking for food stamps, ten years from now, like we did.