David McCabe, The New York Times;
"But after months of talks, a national privacy
law is nowhere in sight...
The struggle to regulate consumer data shows how
lawmakers have largely been unable to turn rage at Silicon Valley’s practices
into concrete action...
But the fervor to crack down on Silicon Valley has
produced only a single new law, a bill to prevent sex trafficking online...
The
United States has some laws that protect consumers’ privacy, like medical
information collected by a doctor. But Congress has never set an overarching
national standard for how most companies gather and use data. Regulators in
Europe, in contrast, put strict new privacy rules into effect last year.
Many tech
companies built lucrative businesses off their users’ personal information,
often by offering a “free” product in return.”
