Congress to Big Tech: How Much Cash Is Each User Worth?
Since no one quite knows what breaking up big tech would look like, the baby steps of regulating internet titans like Google and Facebook are far easier to imagine.
On Monday, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bill that would force transparency on companies that trade in user data. The bill, known as the Dashboard Act (Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broader Oversight and Regulations on Data), would affect tech platforms with more than 100 million monthly users, defining these companies as “commercial data operators.” Companies over that monthly user threshold would be required to tell users once every 90 days what types of data they collect as well as disclose that data’s monetary value.
Those companies would also be required to report the total value of user data collected on an annual basis, including disclosures around third-party relationships. As part of the disclosure, tech platforms would be forced to provide the opportunity for users to delete all of parts of their data, “including any uses not directly related to the online service for which the data was originally collected.” Companies that refuse to comply would face penalties from the FTC.
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