For the third year in a row, the Washington state Legislature is considering a weak, industry-backed data privacy bill. The Washington Privacy Act (Senate Bill 5062) has vague language, a laundry list of exemptions and a provision that explicitly prohibits people from holding companies accountable when they violate people’s digital privacy rights.
Yet supporters of SB 5062, including the bill’s sponsor, have touted this toothless, corporate-centric bill as the “strongest legislation in the world” that aims to be the “gold standard” of privacy. But when national consumer rights organizations like Consumer Federation of America and privacy advocates oppose, while big-tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft enthusiastically back a bill that professes to protect consumers, we should all be suspicious whether such a bill will truly empower people to protect their data or just provide a facade of privacy. Continue reading at The Seattle Times.