Andrew Yang proposes that your digital data be considered personal property (1 Viewer)

[crosswatt]

Andrew Yang proposes that your digital data be considered personal property

“Data generated by each individual needs to be owned by them, with certain rights conveyed that will allow them to know how it’s used and protect it.”

www.fastcompany.com

The presidential candidate published his latest policy proposal today: to treat data as a property right. Announcing the proposal on his website, Yang lamented how our data is collected, used, and abused by companies, often with little awareness or consent from us. “This needs to stop,” Yang says. “Data generated by each individual needs to be owned by them, with certain rights conveyed that will allow them to know how it’s used and protect it.”
The rights Yang is proposing:

• The right to be informed as to what data will be collected, and how it will be used
• The right to opt out of data collection or sharing
• The right to be told if a website has data on you, and what that data is
• The right to be forgotten; to have all data related to you deleted upon request
• The right to be informed if ownership of your data changes hands
• The right to be informed of any data breaches including your information in a timely manner
• The right to download all data in a standardized format to port to another platform

I'll be honest, I'm struggling to find many of the policy offerings Yang is making unattractive.

 

[buzd]

I think I could get behind this idea, although questions about it's enforceability abound.

I do have an issue with this:

The right to be told if a website has data on you, and what that data is

This is a huge oversimplification that doesn't really make sense. "Websites" don't really hold data. The companies behind them that control the databases and servers do. URLs can change and a company holding that data can push it in all kinds of directions. That's a careless bullet point.

 

[Dragon]

He has inspiration from the European GDPR laws that went into effect last year with stiff penalties for those who break those laws

Penalties

Organizations in breach of GDPR can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater).

https://eugdpr.org/the-regulation/

 

[Infoman]

I'll be honest, I'm struggling to find many of the policy offerings Yang is making unattractive.

Andrew Yang on climate change: 'We need to start moving our people to higher ground'

Reaction of the Over half of the American population that lives within 50 miles of the coast :

 

[crosswatt]

Andrew Yang on climate change: 'We need to start moving our people to higher ground'

Reaction of the Over half of the American population that lives within 50 miles of the coast :

As I look out a quarter mile from my office and see the Chesapeake Bay...

 

[SystemShock]

I think I could get behind this idea, although questions about it's enforceability abound.

I do have an issue with this:



This is a huge oversimplification that doesn't really make sense. "Websites" don't really hold data. The companies behind them that control the databases and servers do. URLs can change and a company holding that data can push it in all kinds of directions. That's a careless bullet point.

Yep. Oversimplification and not-so-technically sound statements.

I get the gist of the idea, and I am not saying it is bad...

However, I don't know if Yang is trying to oversimplify it for the masses, or he doesn't really know how things work beyond Twitter and Facebook.

Assume anything you type or upload to the internet is being collected somewhere, somehow.

Right to opt out of data collection, you'd have to define what "data collection" is. I guess one could say "any internet activity collected", but that brings a lot of issues in how the commerce interwebz work.

Websites holding my data, I know what data of mine is on the websites I visit. I am more worried about the data not on a website.

The right to be forgotten may work for Twitter, Facebook, but certainly not for the internet as a whole, credit reports, police records, etc.

Ownership of data changing hands... well, if my data is now mine, then there needs to be a definition as to when ownership changes. If I willingly put my data somewhere, does that constitute ownership transfer? Once I transfer that ownership, no one has to inform me of anything, as the data is no longer mine.

Inform of data breaches on a timely manner, I guess the timely manner could be defined from the time a breach is declared.

The last one doesn't make sense. Data formats on the web are already standardized, unless he meant a sort of packaged form?


... maybe it is the OS engineer in me talking...

 

[Infoman]

As I look out a quarter mile from my office and see the Chesapeake Bay...

I hear you... I just have trouble with statements / stances like that, because it makes me question everything else the candidate says after that point....

I'm not sure how long you have lived near the coast (I see we are around the same age)... but I grew up on the water, in a boat, hunting and fishing, in a camp built in an area that is open to the Gulf of Mexico...

Before I could ride a bike... I could drive a boat and navigate open water.... Our camp was built when I was 8 years old.

The water there is still no higher than it was almost 40 years ago.

Erosion from man made dams, dredging, diversion projects, etc... Yep.... Sea level rise... Nope.

Not saying it's not occurring elsewhere... but based on my experience... I don't see it.... and it sounds like crazy talk to me when someone says I need to move to higher ground... especially when (being from the New Orleans area) I have heard that my entire life due to hurricane, topography, levy, river level, drainage, subsidence, etc. issues.... but never sea level rise in general.


EDIT: Sorry for getting off Topic...

 

[SystemShock]

He has inspiration from the European GDPR laws that went into effect last year with stiff penalties for those who break those laws



https://eugdpr.org/the-regulation/

That law applies to data processors, not "websites".

 

[Dragon]

That law applies to data processors, not "websites".

It certainly does - I can't access half the newssites in the US anymore due to GDPR

They have shut down all access from the EU

 

[SystemShock]

It certainly does - I can't access half the newssites in the US anymore due to GDPR

They have shut down all access from the EU

Wow. That seems extreme... seems an overreaction by U.S. corps.

I guess "data processor" has a different meaning in the People's Republic of Europe

 

[Infoman]

On topic... He's right... Your Digital (data) Footprint should be your personal property... Good luck trying to enforce that (or any standard like that) though.

 

[MT15]

I get that there are problems, but we need to be having these types of discussions on privacy and data management for want of a better word.

 

[Dragon]

It is a huge focus area here. I have to deal with it on a daily basis at both my jobs.

I work with HR software systems as well as a community manager for a major online game provider.

Since the new law was implemented companies can no longer keep records of previous employees older than 5 years. They must be deleted or annonymized.

A forum admin would have to abide by any request from a registered user to delete ALL account information, making it literally impossible to do an ip check when banned posters resurface under a new names just to mention a few examples where the law have major influence on my daily work