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Senator Introduces Bill That Would Send CEOs To Jail For Violating Consumer Privacy (vice.com)
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has introduced the Consumer Data Protection Act that "would dramatically beef up Federal Trade Commission authority and funding to crack down on privacy violations, let consumers opt out of having their sensitive personal data collected and sold, and impose harsh new penalties on a massive data monetization industry that has for years claims that self-regulation is all that's necessary to protect consumer privacy," reports Motherboard. From the report: Wyden's bill proposes that companies whose revenue exceeds $1 billion per year -- or warehouse data on more than 50 million consumers or consumer devices -- submit "annual data protection reports" to the government detailing all steps taken to protect the security and privacy of consumers' personal information. The proposed legislation would also levy penalties up to 20 years in prison and $5 million in fines for executives who knowingly mislead the FTC in these reports. The FTC's authority over such matters is currently limited -- one of the reasons telecom giants have been eager to move oversight of their industry from the Federal Communications Commission to the FTC. "Today's economy is a giant vacuum for your personal information -- everything you read, everywhere you go, everything you buy and everyone you talk to is sucked up in a corporation's database," Wyden said in a statement. "But individual Americans know far too little about how their data is collected, how it's used and how it's shared."
"It's time for some sunshine on this shadowy network of information sharing," Wyden said. "My bill creates radical transparency for consumers, gives them new tools to control their information and backs it up with tough rules with real teeth to punish companies that abuse Americans' most private information."
"It's time for some sunshine on this shadowy network of information sharing," Wyden said. "My bill creates radical transparency for consumers, gives them new tools to control their information and backs it up with tough rules with real teeth to punish companies that abuse Americans' most private information."
It would be fitting torture for both.
Its insane that this data-sucking isn't opt-in already.
Those brokers are not nearly as dangerous as things like Google buying access to MasterCard's data. Facebook and MasterCard also appear to have bidirectional sharing agreement.
If you don't touch that, it's like fighting the drug war while conspicuously avoiding ever moving on the cartels and focusing only on street dealers and their suppliers.
... for the most futile good-will gesture in all of history.
companies whose revenue exceeds $1 billion per year -- or warehouse data on more than 50 million consumers or consumer devices -- submit "annual data protection reports"
So, Only the biggest companies with the biggest legal depts are required to 'self report'?
Thanks Senator (x) That will be so helpful let me give you all our votes.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
I trust private companies more than the govt.
And it has my support...
Jail is too far off a concept for people in charge. I always felt that a simple solution would be to immediately charge companies the following penalty schedule for losing each customer record:
$2 for each name + password
$5 for phone number
$10 for social security number
And multiply for combinations of the above. You'll see companies start fixing their processes (or simply refusing to store unnecessary data, right quick.
If this ever passes I doubt you would even see a "perp walk", let alone jail time, from the worst offenders.
That's the fundamental problem: Government represents a gun that deep pockets can pay to point at their competition; it's not the case that Big Business corrupt government, but rather it's the case that Big Government corrupts businesses.
We had the same problem with religiosity, each sect trying to grab that big governmental stick and thereby beats its will into anyone who had another opinion. We solved that problem with the
Separation of Church and State.
Now, we need a
Separation of Business and State.
The role of the government was never meant to be the chooser of winners and losers—that's the role of The People. The American experiment was to create a government whose sole role is to protect the rights of each individual, chief among which are the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (i.e., the pursuit of self-interest). This experiment has failed, because The Founders forgot to forbid government from usurping The People's right to be the sole owners of society's resources.
"Corporations Are People Too" will spend millions to lobby and donate to millions more to Congress Critters to make sure this never passes.
He released a "discussion draft" of a bill he might introduce later, assuming that Sen. Menendez's 2017 bill, "Consumer Data Protection Act" and other bills in the Senate and House addressing the same issue don't go anywhere.
More posturing for the home crowd to make it look like he's getting something done in Congress.
Just saying.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
> Not that he was part of the financial crisis, but Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, was an exec that was tried for fraud.
Nope. He was never charged.
If you said you think he should have been charged, based on you having looked at the evidence, I wouldn't argue. The fact is, the prosecutors didn't see any reason to charge him personally.
as someone who works with bizarre, arcane self contradeicting government regulations on a daily basis, the idea that you could go to prison for 20 years for writing a report wrong is mind numbingly authoritarian.
if you want to protect privacy, then all you have to do is protect whistleblowers. of course the first thing whistleblowers woud go after is the federal govt itself... i am not holding my breath for either of our corrupt, incompetent political parties to investigate their gravy train.
"tough rules with real teeth to punish companies that abuse Americans' most private information"
I highly doubt it.
The separation of powers, even pitted against each other, is a fundamental design principle of Western civilization (and of Anglo-Saxon civilization in particular).
Of course, the ultimate separation of powers is competition in a market of voluntary trade; good luck getting the government to give up its monopoly on violent imposition.
5 million dollar fine?, you want results, take a years salary from the guilty and 1 year of their social security benefits.
toothless unenforceable BS like this is useless. PUNISH them
...and also throw the executive suite in jail for polluting and all sorts of other malfeasance.
After all, if companies have the rights of persons, they should be treated like them.
Im voting republican because one day i might be in a position where i am directing a trillion dollar company and i dont want to worry about angry libtards coming after me for every little rule broken. if it were up to these idiots, every equifax executive would be in prison or worse.
Then they could just claim ignorance, so this is useless.
Wrong idea anyway, shareholders are the ones that should be punished.
Wipe out 15% of their stock value, then let them sue the CEO for negligence.
All of the company board members & majority share-holders should also be fined, and sent to prison right along-side the CEO.
Also, the company stock must be frozen, noone can sell/buy the company stock until after they are released from prison.
That's okay, I'm now CPO (chief paid officer) and my janitor is now CEO and can do the jail time for a bro...
God forbid we should put a hedge fund manager in jail, after all.
I hope Sen. Wyden bill passes. However, I think the fines need to be larger. I would impose fines of at three times the revenue or profit from selling the data plus the $5 million fine. Otherwise, if a company makes $500 million from selling data, having to pay a $5 million fine is a business risk I might take. However, if the fine was $1.5 billion, I would be much more careful.
The CEOs would be going to jail for lying to the FTC, not for violating consumer privacy. TFA makes no such claim, so looks like BeauHD decided to punch up the title, changing the original article's title to get a few more clicks.
20% of global revenue for 10 yrs. Gotta make it hurt. And don't let the govt backup like they did with that damn Chinese company that violated an agreement after being caught.
That company should have failed for their arrogance.
Recently Senator Heitkamp deliberately used private information from women without their consent in a campaign ad. Would this bill apply to her and put her in jail? Or is there a loophole for politicians?
Because maybe the Equifax execs should be in prison? Having NO punishment for these blatant security issues should carry some prison time. Then perhaps they'd do the proper testing and shit to begin with.
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
Both, are never going to happen.
How is selling multiple copies of a person's details, ensuring privacy for those details? That business model is an antithesis of privacy. Proclaiming "self-regulation is" the answer, is really saying, corporations can do no wrong.
Almost as if it is aimed only at a really big and powerful company that isn't playing ball with the current US administration and isn't a big donor to politicians...
Which almost definitely makes you rightwinger, since such actions are prevalent among the right and are since they endemically project, insist it is the leftwingers who do so.
This is something worth adopting globally.
A.I. will soon give us the power to nuke all these trolls, robber barons, hackers and other human malware from orbit. They better clean up their acts soon.
So your whinging is meaningless, your REAL beef is having a government at all. NOT whether they can force you.
You are a fucking idiot.
Texaco CEO earns more in a small number of months than a senator gets in their career as a senator.
It isn't their money the CEO is paid, it's the cash grab of others' cash.
The cash penalty should include forfeiture provisions for money made from the misbehavior. A lot of these guys have options that would tank if that happened. It would also give boards of directors and shareholders reasons to worry about the issue too.