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You are correct, and that's the main reason why some tech companies lobby in favor of Federal privacy legislation. This also brings up an important issue: Loca
by lmkg 5y ago
You are correct, and that's the main reason why some tech companies lobby in favor of Federal privacy legislation.
This also brings up an important issue: Local Pre-emption. A federal law may, if Congress chooses, say that "states cannot make local laws on this topic." But it also may not, and states could still choose to implement stricter laws.[1] This aspect, along with Private Right of Action, are considered by the privacy community to be at least as important as what tracking is actually allowed.
[1] This is already the case for e.g. wiretapping laws: Federal law requires at least one party consent to recording a phone conversation. Some states have stricter requirements and require all parties consent.
- jdp23 5y agoExactly right. The tech and advertising industries and their allies want weak federal regulations (with no private right of action, and lots of exemptions) that pre-empt stronger state laws. One way to get there is to get multiple states to pass roughly-similar weak regulations and then argue that there's "consensus" so might as well make it a federal standard. So, an Amazon lobbyist gave the version they were trying to get passed in Washington to a Virgnia state legislator who introduced it there and (since Amazon had just invested a zillion dollars in Virgina) they whisked it through. Then they used that as the basis for Colorado's law. This year when they tried to pass it again in Washington one of the arguments was "it aligns with other states". Sigh. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-privacy-lobbying/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-p...