"For now, chastened by bad press and public
outrage, tech behemoths and other corporations say they are willing to
make changes to ensure privacy and protect their users. “I’m committed
to getting this right,” Facebook’s Zuckerberg told Congress in April.
Google recently rolled out new privacy features to Gmail which would
allow users to control how their messages get forwarded, copied,
downloaded, or printed. And as revelations of spying, manipulation, and
other abuses emerge, more governments are pushing for change. Last year
the European Union fined Google $2.7 billion for manipulating online
shopping markets. This year new regulations will require it and other
tech companies to ask for users’ consent for their data. In the U.S.,
Congress and regulators are mulling ways to check the powers of Facebook
and others.
But
laws written now don’t anticipate future technologies. Nor do
lawmakers—many badgered by corporate lobbyists—always choose to protect
individual rights. In December, lobbyists for telecom companies pushed
the Federal Communications Commission to roll back net-neutrality rules,
which protect equal access to the Internet. In January, the U.S. Senate
voted to advance a bill that would allow the National Security Agency
to continue its mass online-surveillance program. Google’s lobbyists are
now working to modify rules on how companies can gather and store
biometric data, such as fingerprints, iris scans, and facial-recognition
images."
