Kennedy, Klobuchar drop data privacy bill Presented by Ericsson

With help from Ashley Gold

FIRST IN MT: KENNEDY AND KLOBUCHAR DROP DATA PRIVACY BILL — Sens. Amy Klobuchar and John Neely Kennedy have teamed up on a measure to rein in tech companies’ ability to extract and use consumer data. The duo will today introduce the ‘‘Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act of 2018.” It comes at a time of increased scrutiny of Silicon Valley amid reports that Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica secretly accessed and exploited data from as many as 87 million Facebook users. Klobuchar and Kennedy's bill would impose a raft of new data privacy rules on tech companies that collect Americans' personal information.


— What would the bill do? Make terms of service more intelligible; ensure users can see what data has been collected on them and shared; provide greater access and control over user data; give consumers the right to opt out of data collection; mandate that users are notified of privacy violations within 72 hours; give remedies when privacy violations happen and require that online platforms “have a privacy program in place.”

— Klobuchar and Kennedy announced plans for the bill earlier this month after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before multiple congressional committees about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook’s data practices. Kennedy said during the hearings that he didn't want to "regulate Facebook half to death" but that some new rules were warranted.

— “Every day companies profit off of the data they’re collecting from Americans, yet leave consumers completely in the dark about how their personal information, online behavior, and private messages are being used,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “The digital space can’t keep operating like the Wild West at the expense of our privacy.”

WYLIE MEETINGS UNDERSCORE PARTISAN DIVIDE — Although lawmakers from both sides of the aisle raised privacy concerns following the Cambridge Analytica revelations, Democrats are driving efforts to obtain more information from whistleblower Christopher Wylie. Wylie, the onetime Cambridge Analytica employee who exposed the firm’s use of Facebook data, is set to huddle with Democratic members from both the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees this week.

— “We tried very hard to get the Republicans to come and participate and make this a full Committee hearing with Mr. Wylie, and they have ignored our invitations,” a Democratic Judiciary Committee spokesperson tells MT. “If they come [today] they are welcome to participate.”

— Over at the Intel Committee, a Democratic aide also said that Republicans have been invited to take part in the Wylie session, described as a closed-door member-level interview. A spokeswoman for House Judiciary Republicans declined to comment and a spokesman for House Intel Republicans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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ANOTHER HEARING, ANOTHER POLICY UPDATE FOR FACEBOOK — Facebook will be the topic of yet another congressional hearing Thursday, this time on alleged social media censorship, so naturally, the tech giant is rolling out a policy change days before. Facebook is introducing a way to appeal decisions made on individual pieces of content that have been taken down by the company for nudity, sexual activity, hate speech or violence. Previously, Facebook only allowed people whose profiles, pages or groups have been taken down to make such appeals. Now, if someone’s content is taken down, they will be able to request a review and have the appeal reviewed by Facebook’s Community Operations team within 24 hours. If Facebook determines it has made a mistake, the content will be restored and the person who lodged the complaint will be notified.

— Speaking of content moderation: “Facebook said on Monday that it removed or put a warning label on 1.9 million pieces of extremist content related to ISIS or al-Qaeda in the first three months of the year, or about double the amount from the previous quarter,” Reuters reports.

INCOMPAS GOES TO BAT FOR NET NEUTRALITY — INCOMPAS, a trade group that counts Facebook and Netflix as members, is the latest organization to take legal action opposing the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules. The group on Monday filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. “The American people do not want the internet to look more like cable, where prices rise, customer service falls, and gatekeepers control what you watch, read and play,” INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering said in a statement. INCOMPAS joins tech companies, public interest groups and state attorneys general in challenging the agency’s repeal of the Obama-era rules.

MACRON AND TECH — French President Emmanuel Macron is in town for the Trump administration’s first state dinner, and we’re keeping an eye on any tech policy talk between the two world leaders. Macron has made a number of efforts to bolster France’s tech bona fides, recently designating nearly $2 billion to boost the country’s expertise on artificial intelligence. “When you look at artificial intelligence today, the two leaders are the US and China,” Macron told Wired in a March interview. “If we want to defend our way to deal with privacy, our collective preference for individual freedom versus technological progress ... if you want to manage your own choice of society, your choice of civilization, you have to be able to be an acting part of this AI revolution.” We’re tracking.

SILICON VALLEY MUST-READS

— Alphabet posts strong financials despite backlash about user privacy: “Google owner Alphabet shrugged off mounting concerns over privacy on Monday to report an 84% rise in profits for the last quarter,” The Guardian reports. “The results eased concerns that investment in new ventures beyond its core search business was undermining Alphabet’s outlook.”

— An Amazon robot in every home?: “The retail and cloud computing giant has embarked on an ambitious, top-secret plan to build a domestic robot, according to people familiar with the plans,” Bloomberg reports.

— A look at how Facebook affects Amazon product reviews: “ A Washington Post examination found that for some popular product categories, such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers, the vast majority of reviews appear to violate Amazon’s prohibition on paid reviews. Such reviews have certain characteristics, such as repetitive wording that people probably cut and paste in. Many of these fraudulent reviews originate on Facebook, where sellers seek shoppers on dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group, to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation.”

MEANWHILE, IN EUROPE — “The European Commission [has] opened an investigation of Apple’s takeover of British music startup Shazam,” POLITICO EU’s Cat Contiguglia reports. “The probe comes after the Commission said earlier this year it would either approve or investigate the deal by today, after receiving requests from member countries — including Austria — to look into the takeover due to competition concerns.”

TRANSITIONS — Kat Maramba, a communications strategist at Blue Engine Media who worked on tech issues including patents, is heading to Sunshine Sachs.

QUICK DOWNLOADS

Microsoft’s latest rural broadband push: Microsoft and Declaration Networks today are unveiling plans to deploy broadband using TV White Spaces and other tech in the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Garrett County, Maryland, according to a news release.

How a recent YouTube policy update impacts creators: “The future of multi-channel networks like Fullscreen, Ritual, BBTV and more are in question as thousands of creators are purged,” Polygon reports. “Multi-channel networks refer to companies that work with hundreds or thousands of YouTube creators under one umbrella.”

A government contractor clashes with a startup on food stamps: “In the last few months, the Propel app has been hobbled or become unavailable in many states, sometimes for weeks,” The New York Times reports. “Behind the slowdown is a big government contractor, Conduent, which runs the food stamp networks in 25 states, including New York, California and Pennsylvania.”

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