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Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

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Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#111

Post by dotancohen »

amatecha wrote: post #49
jmward01 wrote: post #39

Given the actual informed and uncoerced choice, people say no to this kind of collection and especially its sale or use for any purpose other than the explicit service they thought they were allowing it for (navigation, setting the time, etc etc). This is true for basically all information collected. I'm glad to see there is some minor protection language being included but it needs to have real teeth and get to the…

Completely agreed. Even for people who are like "I have nothing to hide", the only people who think this way are simply unaware of just how much harm can come to them without the protection of privacy (and laws that ensure this)... or they just have no self-preservation instinct, I guess?

> or they just have no self-preservation instinct

I actually feel this way very often when talking to some younger people online. I wonder if they really competely lack this skill, or their desire for upvotes online leads to them expressing compassionate, but stupid and dangerous, conclusions.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#112

Post by bitmasher9 »

8note wrote: post #88
spiralpolitik wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the Delaware company has zero presence in Virginia then the state of Virginia can't do anything about it. The presence of us-east-1 in Virginia probably will complicate the matter considerably and I'm guessing it's something the courts would need to sort out.

whoever collected it in virginia, selling it to the delaware company would be screwed though?

Yeah, someone is at risk of trafficking the gps data out of Virginia initially.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#113

Post by abustamam »

ascotan wrote: post #105

The article is misleading. The sale of geolocation data can still take place but not for precise locations. The bill prevents the sale of data that can identify you within 1750ft. You can still be tracked just not precisely. i.e. companies will just sell fuzzy geolocation data.

Yeesh. Collect enough fuzzy data and you can identify a lot about someone.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#114

Post by dotancohen »

Hikikomori wrote: post #43
thephyber wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to understand that in the USA, data is owned by the collector (eg. The app or SaaS who generated it), not the person who is described by it. Until this legal regime changes, we will constantly be playing whack-a-mole with laws like this.

That sounds like something Europeans would do, so it's anti american.

In Europe, who owns the copyright of a photograph? The subject or the photographer?

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#115

Post by dotancohen »

smalltorch wrote: post #101
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smart meters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter

Just wondering why that would be relavant to exclude

My guess is that these devices are stationary, so their location is known.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#116

Post by somenameforme »

abustamam wrote: post #113
ascotan wrote: post #105

The article is misleading. The sale of geolocation data can still take place but not for precise locations. The bill prevents the sale of data that can identify you within 1750ft. You can still be tracked just not precisely. i.e. companies will just sell fuzzy geolocation data.

Yeesh. Collect enough fuzzy data and you can identify a lot about someone.

Yeah I don't understand how something like this makes any sense. Just average out the data points and you're going to get pretty much a straight line path of where and what somebody did. Maybe if there's like one data point per week per person, but even that's going to be pretty informative when averaged as to exactly where somebody lives, works, and so on.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#118

Post by s1artibartfast »

Retric wrote: post #108
s1artibartfast wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A court will decide the cost of a leg someone lost in an accident. However, If Elon wants your leg as a sex toy, a court won't set a price and force you to sell it.

Finding the actual value has nothing to do with forcing the sale. The point is Elon can’t price Starlink at 1 billion dollars a month then give a 999,999,900 discount if you give up your privacy. At that point the bundle is coercive.

I dont think that is coercive. I dont think coercion has anything to do with finding the value. It is "coercive" if he puts a bullet in your brain if you buy neither option.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#119

Post by piker »

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #17
dv_dt wrote: post #10

So let's say a Delaware incorporated company sells location data that happens to be collected in Virginia, but its sold from the corporation with no operations in Virginia. What happens? On the other hand us-east-1 is in Virginia with who knows how many payment processing servers running.

The same thing that happens in court cases across state lines. It goes to one of the jurisdictions in a lawsuit unless it qualifies for diversity jurisdiction and goes to a federal court.

Okay I tend to agree with the CivPro analysis here, but the parent was probably more concerned with the result on the merits.

Re: Virginia bans sale of precise geolocation data

#120

Post by Retric »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #118
Retric wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding the actual value has nothing to do with forcing the sale. The point is Elon can’t price Starlink at 1 billion dollars a month then give a 999,999,900 discount if you give up your privacy. At that point the bundle is coercive.

I dont think that is coercive. I dont think coercion has anything to do with finding the value. It is "coercive" if he puts a bullet in your brain if you buy neither option.

Legally have “sex with me or lose your job” is considered coercion without any direct threat of force. Sleep with me and I’ll pay you 10k isn’t.

The difference is leveraging something else in the transaction not just payment.

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