Democratic Senator Rolls Out Tough, New Internet Privacy Bill

Democrats in the United States Senate on Tuesday, led by former tech executive Maria Cantwell of Washington, unveiled a tough new bill that they are calling “Miranda Rights” for internet users, according to a report by the Washington Post. The bill aims to take back control of user privacy and data from online tech giants such as Facebook and Google. Abuses of user data by the tech giants have been well documented. Facebook alone faces a $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission for its misuse of the vast amounts of user data that it gathers—not only from Facebook users, but across the internet. Cantwell’s could be of particular interest to porn fans who would rather not share their online adult entertainment habits with the tech companies that dominate the internet. As AVN.com reported, an extensive study released earlier this year revealed that Google alone has placed data-tracking software on three of every four porn sites now online. Overall, the study found, 93 percent of all porn sites include secret data trackers from Google, Facebook, Oracle or other tech giants. Cantwell’s bill would allow users to view the data that the tech giants have on them, and to stop that data from being shared or sold. The bill also slaps the tech firms with stiff fines for misusing user data, and allows internet users to sue the companies over abuse of private data. “You have to start saying these aspects of your life belong to you, and you have the right to decide how they’re used,” Cantwell told the Post. Cantwell is a former executive at RealNetworks,  the company that pioneered streaming audio and video technology online back in the early and mid-1990s. She is now the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees regulation of the technology industry. The milestone bill, dubbed the "Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act of 2019," is co-sponsored by three other Democratic senators: Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Klobuchar is currently running for president in the Democratic field. The bill would also set up a new department within the FTC that would focus solely on enforcing online privacy rights. Cantwell’s bill, however, is expected to run into hardened opposition from the tech industry itself, as well as from Republicans in the Senate who generally oppose any new regulations on big business. Photo by United States Senate / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain