Biden administration puts privacy on the agenda

The Future. The Commerce Department plans to hold hearings this month about how data collection negatively impacts issues of equity, race, and privacy. The hope is to help the Biden administration mold a federal privacy policy, which may finally break Congress’ gridlock on how to address the nearly limitless power of Big Tech.

Good listening
The Biden administration would like to hear more on why tech platforms should stop listening in on you.

• The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) is hosting “listening sessions” to help carve out a federal data privacy policy.
• The NTIA is especially interested in the intersection between privacy, equity, and civil rights.
• The talks will be held in mid-December.

Specifically, NTIA has noted that it wants to see how data collection can lead to “discriminatory targeted advertising” or uses facial recognition software that “uses race as a factor in predicting academic success.”

California is already leading the pack on data privacy protections, and the findings from the NTIA’s listening sessions could seriously impact what a federal policy could look like.