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| DATE | 2018-08-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Look the Timesfound some real news to publish --
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/technology/tech-industry-federal-privacy-law.html
Tech Industry Pursues a Federal Privacy Law, on Its Own Terms
Image
In testimony before Congress in April, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark
Zuckerberg, left, said that the social network would be open to privacy
regulation.CreditCreditTom Brenner/The New York Times
By Cecilia Kang
Aug. 26, 2018
WASHINGTON — Technology companies have taken plenty of hits on privacy
this year. In May, Europe began enforcing a sweeping new law that lets
people request their online data and restricts how businesses obtain and
handle the information.
Then in June, California passed its own law that gives people the right
to know what information companies are collecting about them, why the
companies are collecting that data and with whom they are sharing it —
setting a privacy benchmark for the United States.
Now top tech companies are going on the offensive.
In recent months, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and others have
aggressively lobbied officials in the Trump administration and elsewhere
to start outlining a federal privacy law, according to administration
officials and the companies. The law would have a dual purpose, they
said: It would overrule the California law and instead put into place a
kinder set of rules that would give the companies wide leeway over how
personal digital information was handled.
“We are committed to being part of the process and a constructive part
of the process,” said Dean Garfield, president of a leading tech
industry lobbying group, the Information Technology Industry Council,
which is working on proposals for the federal law. “The best way is to
work toward developing our own blueprint.”
The efforts could set up a big fight with consumer and privacy groups,
especially as companies like Facebook face scrutiny for mishandling
users’ personal data. Many of the internet companies depend on the
collection and analysis of such data to help them target the online ads
that generate the bulk of their revenue.
“It’s clear that the strategy here is to neuter California for something
much weaker on the federal level,” said Ernesto Falcon, legislative
counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.
“The companies are afraid of California because it sets the bar for
other states.”
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In the United States, tech companies’ efforts to fight privacy
regulations gained momentum in late spring, as it became clear that the
California proposal might become law.
At a board meeting for the Information Technology Industry Council in
May, Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s top lobbyist, warned that an early proposal
for privacy in California posed a threat to the industry and that the
trade group needed to make the issue of privacy a priority, according to
two people briefed on the meeting, who were not authorized to speak
publicly.
Mr. Kaplan said the California proposal could spread to other states,
the people said. Top lobbyists for other tech companies agreed that it
could be more problematic than the new European law, and that it would
unleash a patchwork of state laws that would not only strap their
businesses but become a regulatory headache, the people briefed on the
meeting said.
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Until that moment, there had been a split in the tech industry about
privacy rules. Companies like IBM and Salesforce, which sell data
storage and software to other businesses, were more willing to accept
consumer privacy laws, IBM and other members of the Information
Technology Industry Council said. Social media and other companies that
relied primarily on advertising for revenue, like Facebook and Google,
were adamant that the industry should fight all rules.
But at that meeting, it became clear that Facebook and Google had
softened their resistance to a federal privacy law, as long as they were
deeply involved in writing the rules.
“There has been a complete shift on privacy,” said Chris Padilla, vice
president for government and regulatory affairs at IBM. “There is now
broad recognition that companies that were resistant to privacy rules
can no longer just say no.”
Image
A booth at Facebook’s F8 developer conference in San Jose, Calif., last
year. Facebook is one of a group of tech companies pushing for a federal
privacy law that would be weaker than California’s.CreditNoah
Berger/Associated Press
Facebook declined to comment. But in congressional testimony in April,
its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, indicated that the social network
would be open to privacy regulation.
Google said it seemed inevitable that privacy rules would come to the
United States.
“There are renewed efforts to define the privacy legislative frameworks
of the future, and we look forward to working with policymakers around
the world to move the process forward,” Google said in a statement.
Many of the companies also recognized that it was a good time to press
ahead with a federal privacy law since Trump administration officials
have expressed openness to a business-friendly approach to such rules.
David Redl, the head of a division of the Commerce Department that is
leading the agency’s privacy efforts, said in a July speech that the
administration’s “commitment to prosperity will be our guide.”
“We also know that industry is looking to the administration to
demonstrate leadership on this issue,” he said at the time. “They’re
rightfully concerned about the potential for a fractured and stifling
regulatory landscape.”
Lindsay Walters, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement
that the administration aimed to work with Congress on legislation “that
is the appropriate balance between privacy and prosperity.”
The administration said it intended to have an outline of potential
rules by the end of the year. But the timeline could easily be pushed
back, as numerous agencies may be involved, including the Commerce
Department, the Federal Trade Commission, and the National Institute for
Standards and Technology.
In a sign of the latitude that a federal privacy law might give tech
companies, at least three trade groups — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
the Internet Association, and the Information Technology Industry
Council — are planning to push for voluntary standards instead of legal
mandates that carry steep penalties for violations.
In exchange for volunteering to follow certain guidelines on what kind
of information they collect and share about users, the groups said, they
would insist that the federal statute nullify California’s rules.
That position has outraged privacy advocates.
“The idea that the companies that violated our privacy for more than a
decade will suddenly have a self-regulatory blueprint is ridiculous,”
said Jim Steyer, president of Common Sense Media, a privacy and
children’s advocacy group that supported the California law.
Image
“The idea that the companies that violated our privacy for more than a
decade will suddenly have a self-regulatory blueprint is ridiculous,”
said Jim Steyer, president of Common Sense Media.CreditChristie Hemm
Klok for The New York Times
Privacy advocates said tech companies were pushing to undercut the
California privacy law in other ways. Although passed in June, the law
stipulates that lawmakers can pursue technical changes in its language
until the end of this month. It is scheduled to take effect in January 2020.
Any changes are supposed to be minor, but tech lobbyists and privacy
groups continue to swarm the offices of the legislators behind the law,
their aides said. Consumer privacy groups, which have been pushing
lawmakers to leave the law virtually untouched, fear the companies are
trying to soften protections.
This month, the California Chamber of Commerce and other business and
tech groups sent 19 pages of edits to the law to State Senator Bill
Dodd, one of the bill’s authors. They criticized language, such as the
law’s definition of personal information, that they said would apply to
too many people or websites.
In the letter, the groups said California’s attorney general, Xavier
Becerra, would need more time to figure out how to enforce the rules and
asked to delay enactment for one year. The business groups argued that
the law could hurt a typical consumer.
“Unless the law is clarified, he or she might also inadvertently be
deprived of special discounts and promotions,” the letter said.
In a rebuttal letter to Mr. Dodd, several consumer privacy groups called
for him and other California lawmakers to keep any changes to a minimum,
saying the tech industry’s moves were “excessive in nature.”
“The sky is not falling, as industry suggests,” the groups said.
Correction: August 26, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the trade group
that is among those pushing for voluntary standards, instead of legal
mandates, when it comes to the privacy of personal information online.
It is the Information Technology Industry Council, not the Information
Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Follow Cecilia Kang on Twitter: -at-ceciliakang.
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