Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 154 posts

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#41

Post by majormajor »

adrr wrote: post #34
TrendyCPU wrote: post #9

The legislation appears to be limited to data brokers. While this is nice and welcomed, this also means it doesn't cover entities like Google or Facebook.

They don’t sell your data.

They don't sell your data TODAY.

Who knows what they'd sell if their business declined for a while and there was a hostile takeover or they otherwise got desperate for new revenue streams.

And then if you were paying attention you could make a new one of these requests... but maybe you'd miss it for a bit, and then it would be too late.

The law should be based on what you collect instead of what you sell to better protect against this sort of thing.

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#42

Post by hef19898 »

vineyardmike wrote: post #40
hef19898 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could make a case for splitting the data collection activities from the ad sales business as part of an anti trust case. Or pass regulations and laws to that effect.

That would be a pretty weird case to make. Typically anti trust is used to prevent a business from using market dominance in one market from entering another market. Considering they don’t participate in the data sales business it’d be a weird scenario to force them to start. I’d prefer we don’t force them to start. Gmail with ads seems way preferable to Gmail who sells your data to others.

Well, I m affraid it is both, ads and data selling...

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#43

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hedora wrote: post #35
azinman2 wrote: post #7

Curious about the issues surrounding credit scores and how much this gets into it.

Back when interest rates were low, Rocket Mortgage incorrectly tanked my credit score. They refused to fix it, which means they were liable for whatever economic damage that causes. When I refinanced, I explained the situation to the other bank's loan agent. They emailed their underwriting division, and the underwriters simply issued an override. Not sure if that works these days or not, but my point is that credit s…

> credit scores are complete bullshit

You can also juice it up or down by over a hundred points by accumulating and then rapidly paying down balances.

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#44

Post by theptip »

TrendyCPU wrote: post #9

The legislation appears to be limited to data brokers. While this is nice and welcomed, this also means it doesn't cover entities like Google or Facebook.

CCPA already requires Google to delete your data on request. Though AFAIK CCPA didn't produce any changes as Google already allowed you to do that.

The same applies to any non-small business that you have a direct relationship with and provide your information to; CCPA requires that business to delete the info if you request it.

Data brokers are a special case because they don't get their information directly from you, instead they slurp up whatever public and private data they can scrape or buy, and then resell that to other companies. Given you don't have a direct relationship with the data brokers, it's hard to even figure out who has your information.

Note, CCPA seems to have excluded the credit bureaus from designation as data brokers, even though those guys are responsible for leaking SSN and full personal information on the majority of US citizens.

The US system of credit surveillance is pretty unusual (EU countries don't do anywhere near that much stalking and they have functioning debt markets) so I'd love to learn what would actually break if people were allowed to opt out of that tracking. Presumably there are some government records you can't opt out of like UCC filings and bankruptcy, and any potential creditor could just look up the primary sources themselves.

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#45

Post by JumpCrisscross »

striking wrote: post #5
yieldcrv wrote: post #2

or else what?

From the bill: > This bill would provide that a data broker that fails to comply with the requirements pertaining to the accessible deletion mechanism described above is liable for civil penalties, administrative fines, fees, and costs, as specified, and would raise the amount of the existing civil penalty provisions described above. The bill would require that moneys collected or received by the agency and the Depar…

Is there a route for private action? As in, could my parents sue a data broker for not complying? Or is this only enforced by California?

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#46

Post by galoisscobi »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #43
hedora wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when interest rates were low, Rocket Mortgage incorrectly tanked my credit score. They refused to fix it, which means they were liable for whatever economic damage that causes. When I refinanced, I explained the situation to the other bank's loan agent. They emailed their underwriting division, and the underwriters simply issued an override. Not sure if that works these days or not, but my point is that credit s…

> credit scores are complete bullshit You can also juice it up or down by over a hundred points by accumulating and then rapidly paying down balances.

> juice it up or down

So what here determines if the score goes up instead of down? I’m planning on getting a mortgage soon but wife’s credit score is in high 600s. If we can make it past, 720, we are told we’ll get a better rate. So I’m curious as to how to bump up the score.

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#47

Post by noizejoy »

adrr wrote: post #34
TrendyCPU wrote: post #9

The legislation appears to be limited to data brokers. While this is nice and welcomed, this also means it doesn't cover entities like Google or Facebook.

They don’t sell your data.

> They don’t sell your data.

... except when they sell their domain registration business.

And yes, I realize that there's a (technical) difference between selling data and selling a business including its data assets.

But then again, maybe a really big chunk of the value of that business is its customer data.

For some business acquisitions special terminology like "aqui-hiring"[0] has evolved so it's understood that not every sale of a business is of the same nature.

And since the value of data has arguably become much higher than ever before, the distinction of selling data by itself and selling the entire business is becoming smaller as time goes on.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acqui-hiring

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#48

Post by hackncheese »

This reminds me of a company my friend used to work for, Ketch [1]. Basically described their service as automation that fulfills this exact requirement on customers databases. Sounds like they were ahead of the game.

[1] https://www.ketch.com/

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#49

Post by r00fus »

Alupis wrote: post #26
callalex wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right to unsubscribe being discussed here has nothing to do with emails. It states that if you paid for a subscription online, you must be able to cancel it online within a few clicks as well. No “call us” or “send a registered letter during a full moon and low tide only” nonsense. It’s really great.

> No “call us” or “send a registered letter during a full moon and low tide only” nonsense. It’s really great. I am very skeptical even this is as great as some think. Outside CA, most companies can simply ignore these "viral" style laws with no consequences.

As another Californian, I'd love examples of where this is ignored, or where non-californians also benefit from these.

I also gladly unsubscribe easily without frustration - just not sure if this is common in other states.

Re: California passes bill to make it easier to delete data from data brokers

#50

Post by r00fus »

Alupis wrote: post #31
callalex wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s really odd to me that you are telling me that my lived experience is false and impossible. Every subscription I have made since this law passed, I have been able to cancel online. This includes newspapers, store club memberships, random podcasts and other online entertainment, educational software, and more. Sometimes the government really does work for the people. It is actually possible.

Overwhelming majority of those things you listed could already be cancelled online. You can read the laws yourself. There's not a lot of teeth for small businesses to comply. Go look at the state AG website for P65 complaints (they are all by law published). 99% are privately settled without wrongdoing (you can see this on AG website too), and some fee is paid to the plaintiff's attorneys. Sometimes the math says it'…

Why are you conflating right-to-unsubscribe with P65? They are different laws with different enforcement mechanisms. Also consumers don't find P65 useful whereas we see benefit from unsubscribing.
Post reply on HN