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U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#11

Post by sitkack »

putlake wrote: post #9

The cartoon playing out in the media once again reminds me of Gell-Mann Amnesia because I used to work at Alexa. The lengths that they go to for preserving consumer privacy actually seemed absurd to me. Alexa engineers and applied scientists' lives would have been much easier if they didn't take customer privacy -- and their right to request and delete their data -- so seriously. Yes, they are lobbying against regula…

How about we regulate AND make it easy for startups to compete. Living in world where the big corps can all responsibly handle your data (what ever that actually means) and competition stagnates. Our brand of capitalism pretends in runs on competition.

*edit and from the article, if Amazon is quietly curtailing and preventing privacy laws on a state basis, what effort are they using ton unify those laws on a federal basis?

> No major federal privacy legislation has passed Congress in years because members have been deadlocked on the issue.

I assume Amazon is assisting here as well.

All large corporations have a lot of folks at the edges actually doing the work. The internal controls for privacy are strong, but those are nearly orthogonal to the larger corporate goals. If you leak or improperly use customer data, that could have huge ramifications from the political and legal fall out. The amoral or immoral use of customer data at the whole org level are what people are generally talking about when it comes to data privacy from corporations.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#12

Post by denton-scratch »

maxerickson wrote: post #7
ancode wrote: post #4

If only they had the power to actually enact legislation

This sort of cynicism is confusing. Bringing attention to an issue is an obvious component of enacting legislation when there are many different topics competing for that attention in the legislature. If it was a resolution passed by the full house calling on Amazon to be nice guys, well then okay, be as cynical as you want about that.

Passing bills is another component - quite an important one. The federal government currently faces challenges getting bills through.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#13

Post by Brendinooo »

A reminder that no one's making you use Amazon, especially the Alexa stuff.

I invested in Mycroft to try and kickstart a privacy-focused alternative; the hardware isn't there yet but they've made good strides on the software side. You can invest too! https://www.startengine.com/mycroftai

Make the world we want to live in.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#14

Post by 1cvmask »

sitkack wrote: post #11
putlake wrote: post #9

The cartoon playing out in the media once again reminds me of Gell-Mann Amnesia because I used to work at Alexa. The lengths that they go to for preserving consumer privacy actually seemed absurd to me. Alexa engineers and applied scientists' lives would have been much easier if they didn't take customer privacy -- and their right to request and delete their data -- so seriously. Yes, they are lobbying against regula…

How about we regulate AND make it easy for startups to compete. Living in world where the big corps can all responsibly handle your data (what ever that actually means) and competition stagnates. Our brand of capitalism pretends in runs on competition. *edit and from the article, if Amazon is quietly curtailing and preventing privacy laws on a state basis, what effort are they using ton unify those laws on a federal…

The laws are written to entrench incumbents and their moats. Startups have neither the resources or the lobbyists to compete while they try to get their bare feeble MVP off the ground. The only way you can do that is if you carve out exemptions for smaller companies. This law does not apply if you have less than 300 employees and 100 million is net turnover etc.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#15

Post by reaperducer »

putlake wrote: post #9

The cartoon playing out in the media once again reminds me of Gell-Mann Amnesia because I used to work at Alexa. The lengths that they go to for preserving consumer privacy actually seemed absurd to me. Alexa engineers and applied scientists' lives would have been much easier if they didn't take customer privacy -- and their right to request and delete their data -- so seriously. Yes, they are lobbying against regula…

no business wants to have to deal with 50 different laws in 50 states.

Amazon already does this in a thousand ways, from labor laws to labeling laws to paying thousands of different sales tax rates to thousands of different states, towns, and other municipalities.

If this was a startup, maybe you'd have a case. But it's a trillion-dollar company. Suck it up, buttercup.

Or just do the simple thing: Follow the most restrictive state laws. Somehow, following California emissions standards in the 1970's didn't bankrupt the auto industry. And following Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture standards didn't bankrupt the food industry in the early part of the last century.

Following the rules is a cost of doing business. If Amazon can't afford to follow the rules, then it should go out of business and let someone else innovate.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#16

Post by jjulius »

putlake wrote: post #9

The cartoon playing out in the media once again reminds me of Gell-Mann Amnesia because I used to work at Alexa. The lengths that they go to for preserving consumer privacy actually seemed absurd to me. Alexa engineers and applied scientists' lives would have been much easier if they didn't take customer privacy -- and their right to request and delete their data -- so seriously. Yes, they are lobbying against regula…

The original Reuters article[0] about Amazon's lobbying efforts addresses that point. It says:

> Amazon said it wants one national privacy law rather than a “patchwork” of state regulations. Asked for details of any federal privacy legislation it has supported, Amazon did not name a specific bill. The company did provide three examples of what it described as statements of public support by its executives for federal consumer-privacy legislation.

> In those cases, Reuters found, the executives were expressing either direct opposition to such a law, opposition to existing state privacy protections, or advocacy for industry-friendly measures opposed by consumer advocates. No major federal privacy legislation has passed Congress in years because members have been deadlocked on the issue.

The article goes into great detail about the efforts to stop state-level legislation. If Amazon truly wanted to see a federal-level law, then we should expect to see them putting a similar sort of effort (or, hell, any effort at all) at the federal level towards getting one written and passed. The simple fact is, we don't.

Until we see that effort from them, anyone using the excuse that, "State laws make this a difficult patchwork to navigate so we want a federal law," is just largely spouting bullshit.

Edit: This is compounded by the fact that, as another user pointed out, they already deal with patchworked state laws in many other areas of their business, but they don't go to these levels to stop that.

[0]https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-p...

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#17

Post by tyingq »

Brendinooo wrote: post #13

A reminder that no one's making you use Amazon, especially the Alexa stuff. I invested in Mycroft to try and kickstart a privacy-focused alternative; the hardware isn't there yet but they've made good strides on the software side. You can invest too! https://www.startengine.com/mycroftai Make the world we want to live in.

Some of it is foisted on you whether you like it or not though. Like your across-the-street neighbor's Ring doorbell sharing HD footage of you, your house, etc, to law enforcement.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#18

Post by willis936 »

tyingq wrote: post #17
Brendinooo wrote: post #13

A reminder that no one's making you use Amazon, especially the Alexa stuff. I invested in Mycroft to try and kickstart a privacy-focused alternative; the hardware isn't there yet but they've made good strides on the software side. You can invest too! https://www.startengine.com/mycroftai Make the world we want to live in.

Some of it is foisted on you whether you like it or not though. Like your across-the-street neighbor's Ring doorbell sharing HD footage of you, your house, etc, to law enforcement.

I noticed an Alexa in a family member's bathroom recently. Yeah, I don't have to own them, but that doesn't mean their existence doesn't affect me. This is ripe for legislation.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#19

Post by sitkack »

1cvmask wrote: post #14
sitkack wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about we regulate AND make it easy for startups to compete. Living in world where the big corps can all responsibly handle your data (what ever that actually means) and competition stagnates. Our brand of capitalism pretends in runs on competition. *edit and from the article, if Amazon is quietly curtailing and preventing privacy laws on a state basis, what effort are they using ton unify those laws on a federal…

The laws are written to entrench incumbents and their moats. Startups have neither the resources or the lobbyists to compete while they try to get their bare feeble MVP off the ground. The only way you can do that is if you carve out exemptions for smaller companies. This law does not apply if you have less than 300 employees and 100 million is net turnover etc.

How about we make privacy laws that are easy for everyone to comply with. No moats, no exemptions.

We need strong personal privacy and the peeping tom corporations can offer value other than attempting to hack our wetware for profit.

Re: U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon

#20

Post by Brendinooo »

willis936 wrote: post #18
tyingq wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of it is foisted on you whether you like it or not though. Like your across-the-street neighbor's Ring doorbell sharing HD footage of you, your house, etc, to law enforcement.

I noticed an Alexa in a family member's bathroom recently. Yeah, I don't have to own them, but that doesn't mean their existence doesn't affect me. This is ripe for legislation.

Sure. I just don't want to get my hopes too high that I'll get what I want in that arena...
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