How to make data privacy real

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Last week, the U.S. government opted for an app that allows women to track their period by claiming to have shared its users’ health information with Google and Facebook. A photo storage app has also confirmed that it uses people’s images to create a facial recognition system.

These app makers got into trouble not because what they were doing seemed scary, but because they weren’t up front about it.

In the United States, as long as businesses don’t mislead their customers, there aren’t many legal limits to what they can do with our private information.

It’s not great, is it? But California has a relatively new data privacy law that, while awkward and flawed, is beginning to show intriguing ways to allow Americans to limit how our data can be used.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission said the women’s app Flo Health broke its promise to its users to keep their information private when it shared sensitive data, including women’s pregnancy status. with other companies.

Under the terms of the settlement, Flo is now required to obtain people’s consent before sharing their medical information. (Flo did not admit to doing anything wrong. The company said it does not share users’ health data without permission.)

People should be able to choose companies to trust with our personal information as long as they are honest about what they are doing. However, this is often an all-or-nothing and confusing choice: either say yes to a loosely worded privacy document or not use the website or app at all.

And it seems weird to me that if Flo just publishes a new privacy policy, then he can share women’s intimate information. But this is mainly how it works in the United States. Businesses can do just about anything they want about their users’ data if they first describe their actions in a privacy policy.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, which went into effect a year ago, is starting to chart a promising alternative path.

By law, residents of the state – and in some cases, all Americans – can require large companies to show people what data they have about you and with whom they shared it. People can also ask companies to remove and not “sell” the data they have about you. (There is no agreement on the legal definition of “sell”.)

The law is not perfect and it is complicated. People need to go to every organization that might have their data to delete or restrict what they can do with it.

But California law also contemplated the possibility of “authorized agents” to exercise data rights on our behalf. Instead of filling out 100 forms asking 100 companies to delete your data, you would choose a privacy assistant to do it for you. Consumer Reports started offering to be a privacy assistant as a test project last month.

The most intriguing idea is that the privacy assistant can simply be a web browser where you check a box once and every site you visit then receives an automated notice to prohibit sharing or selling the personal information therein. are collected. Think of it as a version of the “Do Not Call” telemarketer list.

So far, a few websites have started to add this privacy agent functionality. (The New York Times is one of the organizations involved, both helping to develop browser specs and agreeing to implement people’s choices.) If California determines that this type of privacy agent is legally binding, I would expect this project to expands.

These privacy ideas are just getting started. But I’m intrigued by the possibility of giving Americans real power over our digital lives.

Tip of the week

Many Americans working from home during the pandemic printers purchased – and with that, there were often swearing and screaming. Brian X. Chen, the New York Times personal tech columnist, is here to help:

Printers are possibly the worst technological product ever. My first job out of college was examining printers for a small tech magazine. So I know more about machines than I ever would have liked. Here are some common problems and solutions:

My wireless printing has stopped working: Last week you printed that Amazon return label over your Wi-Fi network. Today you can’t. Why?

Sometimes printers go into sleep mode and disconnect from your Internet network. Sometimes restarting the printer will restart it.

Another possibility is that the printer has changed its IP address – the identification number assigned to every device connected to the Internet – and your computer can no longer find it. You can resolve this problem by going to the advanced settings of your Internet router and setting a static IP address for the printer. (Do a Google search for your router make and model and instructions on setting up a static IP address.)

I get an error when I try to print: It is common and infuriating. Often the problem is outdated software. Search the web for your printer model for what are called new drivers or firmware updates, and follow the instructions to update the software.

I run out of ink too quickly: This can happen if you bought an ink cartridge of a different brand. If this becomes a recurring problem, try changing brands, preferably the ink cartridge made by the printer manufacturer.

Another possibility is that the printer software has misfired and the printer mistakenly declares that the ink is out. Again, a firmware or driver update can help.

Finally, remember the golden rule of printers: If in doubt, restart your printer and the device you are trying to print from. Sometimes that makes the problems go away.

  • More information on a possible smoking gun in Google’s antitrust lawsuit: One of the intriguing claims in a government antitrust lawsuit against Google is that the company and Facebook have teamed up to help their businesses at everyone’s expense. New reports from my colleagues Dai Wakabayashi and Tiffany Hsu have revealed that Google is giving Facebook preferential treatment in computerized ad auctions and that both companies fear being investigated to reduce competition as a result.

  • Saying you are doing something is not the same as doing it: Facebook has said it has stopped automatically recommending people join the kinds of partisan political or social groups that sometimes lead people to extreme ideas. An analysis of some Facebook users’ news feeds by markup revealed that the site had not actually stopped these automatic recommendations.

  • Now is the right time to wallow in nostalgia: On eBay, you can indulge in a childhood sweetheart from Sassy magazine.

Two groups of penguins – one going into the water and the other coming back – stop to chat. (OK, I don’t know if they are arguing. Indulge my imagination.)

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