On more than
one occasion, I have told my children there is no such thing as a free
lunch. In almost every case, they
look at me quizzically and wonder what I mean. For they have grown up during the era of the free
lunch. They have lived in the time
of the Internet where the essence of their social lives, online lives, and
academic lives has been achieved free of charge. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, along with Google, Bing and
Yahoo, have always been available and free for their use. Newspapers, magazines and other media
struggle to develop a pay model which millenials will accept because study
after study says they expect information to be free. What they have totally missed is that while the service is predominantly
free, it is so only because they have themselves become a commodity for sale
and to be monetized. Rather,
information about them is the treasure which these sites are mining.
While not telling you anything you do not know, the entire time you
spend online someone is monitoring you and gleaning information about
you...information which has a monetary value to everyone from marketers to the
federal government. The Wall
Street Journal, and other publications, has documented the length to which
Facebook or Google et.al. will go to find out anything and everything about you
and then sell that information.
The information is so intimate, third parties can take this
"anonymous" data and turn it into your name and address. They can build social profiles which
predict if you are gay or straight, male or female, married or single. They are able to draw conclusions about
your physical and mental health and possibly fetishes and kinks. All of this information is worth
billions to them and they do not want you to know how they gather it or what
they will do with it. Add to this
tsunami of data, all the personal information received when you download, and
use, apps from Apple or Google stores and you privacy becomes a transparent
window through which strangers may look and observe you.
Alarm bells are finally starting to go off. Shouldn't you have a right to know what they are gathering
and whom they are sharing it with?
Were you to truly discover how intrusive and comprehensive this privacy
assault is; is it possible you might protest and demand to be left alone? Should you at least have that option?
California Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthall (D. Long Beach) thinks you
have a right to know how your private information is being used online and whom
it is shared with. She has introduced
legislation called the Right To Know Act, (AB 1291) and a who's who of giant
tech companies is lining up to crush this idea as quickly as possible. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others
are demanding Lowenthall drop her bill.
What are they afraid of?
Already, a hearing on the bill has been postponed after heavy lobbying
from Silicon Valley. The chair of
the committee says he is concerned the bill is too broad, or too widely
constructed or might cost him some big political donations if he supports
it. While Google says its
philosophy is to do no harm, and Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to change the
world for the better, neither wants you to know they can only do so if you
allow them to treat you as a commodity to be sold no differently than pork
butts or corn futures.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a co-sponsor of the Right To Know
Act. The ACLU says online
services, computer apps, social networking sites and other online entities are
capable of tracking people and their location, buying habits and favorite
foods. If the average person
realizes how naked they are online, perhaps they will opt out and refuse to let
this information be gathered and disseminated. This is what the big boys are terrified might happen because
it would destroy their model of profitability.
The bill would be the first of its kind in the nation. It would force companies to show a
customer what information is gathered about them and who they share it
with. This would have to be done
for free.
The tech companies are screaming this would open them up to an avalanche
of responses to requests for information and possibly to lawsuits. They further contend a privacy law
passed in 2005 already lets consumers ask about private information they have
gathered. Supporters of AB 1291
point out the 2005 bill was concerned mainly with telemarketing abuse so no
company has to share any private information they have about you, or who they
sell it to, unless it is used for direct marketing purposes. (a huge, gaping, sucking loophole big
enough to drive Rush Limbaugh through)
Plus Lowenthall says companies collect a raft of personal information
the 2005 law doesn't even mention.
If you would enjoy some irony, as Silicon Valley and the Chamber of
Commerce (the most evil institution in the nation) scream and cry alligator
tears about how onerous this bill would be, they already comply with similar
provisions in the 27 countries which comprise the European Union. A law like AB 1291 was passed by the Union
and all tech companies say they are in compliance with it. Yes, that's right, they have no problem
complying with millions of European customers, but doing so in the U.S. would
be catastrophic. (what?)
If you don't mind being cyberly strip searched every time you go online,
then bend over and cough before you log on and ignore AB 1291. If, however, your privacy is not for
sale...if you do not wish nameless, faceless companies to know your health
status or where you hang out...if you didn't log on for this and wish to assert
your right to be left alone...then you need to contact your local assembly
person or state senator and demand they support this modest bill. At one time, the Robber Barons,
(Huntington, Crocker, Stanford and Hopkins) controlled California and the
California legislature until the people took back that power. Now the new robber barons Brin,
Zuckerberg, Gates and Pincus, want to again run roughshod over your rights, and
they will succeed unless you actually oppose them. Even if my children doubt it, there really is no such thing
as a free lunch.
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