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Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Further Explores Facebook Data Privacy

The Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal and Facebook were the subject of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security hearing yesterday with Aleksandr Kogan, creator of the personality quiz app This is Your Digital Life, and several other individuals.

cambridgeanalyticahearing

Going through the prepared remarks of Kogan, he proposes a five-part plan to start moving organizations in the right direction on data privacy. The plan doesn’t really include any bombshells that would surprise privacy professionals. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that even the researcher at the heart of probably the world’s largest data privacy controversy is in favor of privacy regulation.

1. Switch from abstract, general “blanket consent” to outlining specific uses of data by the organization.

2. Companies should provide a risk assessment of what could go wrong to consumers so that they understand the dangers in placing data on the platform.

3. Require opt-in consent through an affirmative act.

4. Require consent to be given to each specific point rather than globally.

5. Discourage consent from being given without even seeing the disclosures.

Ashkan Soltani, a former Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, also had interesting remarks.

Soltani contends that the current privacy framework of notice and choice is woefully inadequate since users don’t read most privacy policies. Even if a user does read the privacy notice, their choice is largely limited to accepting it or boycotting the service since most privacy disclosures are take it or leave it. Given the current state of privacy law, the FTC finds most practices generally permissibile as long as they have been disclosed.

The second section of his testimony identifies Facebook as having done “more to erode consumer privacy” than any other single company. It recounts the numerous unfair and deceptive practices on privacy that Facebook has had in the past. It also discusses how Facebook has often sought to improve consumer privacy only to soften or walk back those protections through exemptions with preferred partners.

Finally, Soltani contends that federal regulation is necessary to prevent future harms. He suggests an omnibus privacy regulation to give the FTC meaningful authority as well as changes to current businesses practices involving a lack of meaningful consent, inadequate data security practices, and a lack of real transparency from tech companies.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the hearing was that Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), chair of the subcommittee, said he was considering joining the effort of Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to pass a privacy bill of rights, according to the Wall Street Journal. Senator Blumenthal is a co-sponsor of the CONSENT Act, which was introduced into the Senate on the same day as the testimony of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in April. The WSJ article about the testimony said that the potential for action this year remains dim but it expects the issue to keep bubbling up.

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Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Further Explores Facebook Data Privacy

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