what privacy laws do we have in the US? There are data peddling firms that buy and sell the up-to-the-hour location of every smartphone in the country to anyone with a signed letter that says they work with law enforcement.
Nationally, not many. There are a few laws like the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and the FTC (theoretically) has a lot of power to enforce whatever privacy statements companies make to their customers (this isn't just limited to enforcing fine print, either), but it's hard to figure out what private companies are doing in the first place and enforcement actions to date have been minimal. There was a $5 billion FTC fine levied against Facebook a few years ago (and that was the largest privacy-related fine anywhere in the world by an order of magnitude), but that happened after almost a decade of wrist-slap enforcement, and a year or so after paying the fine Facebook reported $62 billion in cash reserves.
California has some stricter laws that are new enough that we don't have a great read on how they'll be applied, so there's at least some positive movement in one major state.
Idk but they seem terrible, my friend showed me a website a while ago that shows you all of someone's personal information if you put in their name. Address, age, employment, family members, everything. It's fucked. I can't remember the name of the site, this was a few years ago.
Also if you paid for a premium subscription you could get even more information :agony-consuming:
It's gonna own so much when this is passed. Americans will never hear about it, of course. But China can beat the US at basically anything.
So apparently it's soft on data collection by the government but harsh on tech companies.
Well, can't win em all :stalin-approval: less intrusive ads for our Chinese pals
I'm cool with government data collection tbh. Especially because (in China at least) we've seen how that data can be used for good. Like the map of where all the impoverished families are and who's assigned to them and how they're doing. Super useful.
It's essentially an always up to date census.
Important caveat: you need to be able to request all data they have on you and see exactly what they got.
That's why being clear about exactly what's being collected is important.
Article 25: When using personal information to conduct automated decision making, the transparency of the decision making and the fairness and reasonability of the handling result shall be guaranteed. Where an individual believes automated decision making creates a major influence on their rights and interests, they have the right to require personal information handlers to explain the matter, and they have the right to refuse that personal information handlers make decisions solely through automated decision making methods.
Article 35: State organs handling personal information for the purpose of fulfilling statutory duties and responsibilities shall notify individuals according to the provisions of this Law and obtain their consent, except where laws or administrative regulations provide that secrecy shall be protected, or where notification and obtaining consent will impede State organs’ fulfillment of their statutory duties and responsibilities.
There's wiggle room in article 35, but I guess that's unavoidable for like investigations and stuff. Hopefully that's not used as a massive loophole.
The second part is specifically there for pandemic/natural disasters. Where the time it takes to get consent will hamper mitigation efforts. It's also important that even in those instances, upon the end of the disaster, everyone is notified and told what data was collected and why.
NYT headline: China is experimenting with privacy laws. Here's how it can affect businesses in the US.
There's a growing expectation of privacy in the Chinese public, and the government is responding to it by passing high-level authority to try and ensure some protections.
Trying to think of a time the US government responded to any kind of public expectation at this scale.
Drastically cutting meat consumption nationwide is part of their Five Year Plans and they passed that law cracking down on food waste recently
