Americans' conception of privacy itself, as much as a deadlocked Congress, stands in the way of the U.S. adopting a national digital privacy law, experts tell Axios.
The big picture: U.S. citizens, uniquely among global populations, think of privacy as the right to decide who enters their space.
Zoom out: American individualism historically emphasizes personal choice and freedom, especially freedom from government intrusion into personal space.
The Bill of Rights specifically includes protections barring the government from stationing soldiers in private homes without the owners' consent.
"We have trouble in this country thinking of privacy as something other than the preservation of individual sovereignty over one's immediate personal space," Emily Tucker, the executive director at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, told Axios.
Yes, but: In today's data-driven, always online society, that focus on individual choice and consent has given many tech firms a green light to assemble vast stockpiles of citizens' personal information. That data fuels enormously profitable targeted-ad businesses that underwrite free service for the customer.
"I do think that Big Tech companies have flagrantly exploited this American bias that privacy is about my personal space and my personal choice," Tucker told Axios.
This led to the current regime, under which people "consent" to data collection by clicking an "I accept" box on terms of service they never read.
"It's...
Read Full Story: https://www.axios.com/2022/08/22/privacy-law-hidden-roadblock-beliefs
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.