200
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by iuseit@iusearchlinux.fyi to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

In rare positive news Massachusetts is weighing banning the sale of user location data. Do you feel like this will make a difference if it gets passed?

EDIT: Fixed Link

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Your article link is broken, so I haven't read it, and can't comment on it directly if it answers these questions, but...

I think it really will depend on how it's written. If it's only banning the "sale" of user location data, it might be possible to get around by selling unrelated data that just happens to come with location-identifiable data as an extra 'free' include, or something stupid like that... It's really going to come down to how it's enforced, and what kind of penalties there are for violating it. If it's enforced intermittently, and the fines are too low, nobody's going to care.

That said, it's a great step in a good direction. I'm from MA; the government here is occasionally somewhat sane when it comes to protections like this, so I've got hope that this will have some teeth. (Maybe unlike the right-to-repair legislation that passed years ago and still has yet to be enforced...)

Edit after the new link was posted:

The most exciting thing in here to me is:

Requiring law enforcement to provide a warrant to access user location data could also help curtail the rising trend of law enforcement buying that information commercially.

Law enforcement is quickly moving from "Mostly neutral" to "Outright hostile" to the general population and anything that curbs their abuses of the system is a net positive in my book.

[-] iuseit@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 1 year ago

Apologies for the broken link. Yes the portion regarding law enforcement is the most exciting part of this. I'm just happy someone out there is trying. But hey who says the government will even follow the laws if something like this is passed. Additionally this law will work on the state level but not the federal level.

this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
200 points (98.5% liked)

Privacy

31974 readers
232 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS