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"The California Effect" is coming on the Internet, and even though it means stricter online privacy rules, I bet that Facebook, Google and other tech titans are in tune with it.
is far ahead of what other states and the federal government require. Online businesses that collect personal information about users will have to tell them what they do with the data and who they share it with.
Companies will also have to let consumers see what information has been collected about them, and consumers may require that it be deleted. They can also tell businesses to only share the data with anyone else. And Californians will have the right to sue companies for breaking the rules.
The law is
enforceable only in the Golden State. But let 's not forget the "Californian effect," first noted by David Vogel, a professor of commerce at the University of California. When the nation's most populous state cracked down on automotive air pollution, automakers began to make all their vehicles cleaner. It's cheaper than making one version for California, and another for everyone.
Similarly, the California standard may become the Internet privacy standard when the law comes into effect on January 1, 2020. So even if the federal government does not do anything, we will actually have a standard National Privacy Act.
Be that as it may, the biggest Internet companies, which make billions of dollars to capture and monetize the data. They barely opposed the new law, saying it was much better than a proposed voting initiative with even more difficult mandates. The California legislature has rejected this plan and gives Big Tech time to try to dilute the new standards.
But even if the California law comes into force, Internet giants can live with the result. They have the money for the complex bureaucracy needed to follow the law. This is not the case for your typical startup, which could be ruined by the cost.
"You can call this a consumer protection law …", said Ryan Hagemann, Senior Policy Director at the Niskanen Center, a think-tank on free trade in Washington.
Hagemann cites reports from Europe, which began applying last month stricter privacy standards.Some small businesses have said that they are closing their doors because they can not afford to respect the new standards
There is no doubt that new companies will find it harder to become global titans by monetizing personal private data, and people like Andrew Carnegie enriched themselves by building industrial empires that also This is not to say that we allow everyone to do the same, maybe strict regulation in terms of protecting will privacy prevent the emergence of the "next Facebook", but is it a bad thing?
Perhaps new regulations will reduce the number of companies sensitive to sensitive data. But I would rather have one or two big companies that follow me than 20 or 30 smaller ones. There are fewer possibilities for data breaching this way, and it is easier to sue when something is wrong.
In addition, California law has certain features that should soften the blow for small businesses. For example, it exempts companies with less than $ 25 million in annual gross revenue, or those with less than 50,000 personal information. Internet businesses that stay small can violate our privacy as much as they want.
And it will be perfect for most people. I thought we were all going to get fed up with constant follow-up, but the public's response to the Facebook privacy breaches made me a total cynic. Of course, many people have complained about this. But almost none of us have stopped using Facebook, including me. We love it too much.
If a company offers us a conveniently attractive service in exchange for our personal data, most of us will deliver it without a privacy law or privacy law.
I am happy that California has moved because it will provide valuable protection for those who truly care about privacy. There must be three or four there, somewhere.
Hiawatha Bray can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeTechLab.
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