Internet privacy bill rises from the dead at California capitol

24 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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California lawmakers have another shot at creating strong data privacy rules. Assembly bill 375, authored by assemblyman Ed Chau (D – Monterey Park), was originally aimed at Internet service providers. It would have reinstated ISP privacy rules that were scrapped by the republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission. It died last year after legislative leaders bowed to back door pressure and “dirty tricks” from ISPs, like AT&T and Comcast, and Silicon Valley’s big online players, like Google and Facebook.

But with angst over Facebook’s epic face plant and other data breaches reaching a fever pitch, attention turned to how companies – of all kinds – collect, keep and use data about and belonging to consumers. A petition drive appears to have collected enough signatures to get a sweeping online data protection law on the November ballot. To head that off, Chau and senator Robert Hertzberg (D – Van Nuys) rewrote AB 375 and, on Friday, put it on a fast track for potential approval this week.

As rewritten, AB 375 meets the needs of the initiative’s backers. It would give consumers the right to ask companies what kind of personal data they’re collecting, what they’re doing with it and who they’re sharing it with. Consumers could also tell online businesses to delete information and prevent them from sharing or selling personal information to others. Those backers will scrap it if the legislature approves AB 375 and governor Jerry Brown signs it into law by Thursday (the deadline for pulling the initiative).

According to a story by Taryn Luna in the Sacramento Bee, avoiding a ballot measure will also avoid a massively expensive campaign, fuelled by money from the big incumbent ISPs and online platforms that oppose it…

[Alastair Mactaggart, the main proponent of the initiative], who has dished out $3.5 million to support his own cause by paying signature gatherers to qualify the initiative, expected his opponents to spend as much as $100 million on the campaign against the Consumer Privacy Act before the Nov. 6 election. As of this week, the opponents of the initiative had given nearly $2.2 million to tank it.

You can count on those same companies to flood Sacramento with lobbyists this week, just as they did last week to oppose network neutrality bills.