"Danielle Citron, chairwoman the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a group that focuses on emerging data privacy and civil liberties issues, says the food movement could provide a roadmap for how to create better data privacy laws. She’s published an authoritative look into how state attorneys generals have shaped data privacy law. Tech companies would be particularly averse to a patchwork of state regulations, Citron says.
“We have something to learn perhaps,” she says. “Right now it’s a free-for-all in terms of data collection and usage. We need to set some ground rules. I think we might be in a moment in which we’re going to see some of these efforts.”
The privacy rights attached to that kind of data are also difficult to understand and preserve because of the companies that deal in data. Places such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Google have designed an internet ecosystem that gives people the illusion that their data are safe and that they are in control of it. But the odds are actually stacked against everyday people, says Northeastern University law professor Woodrow Hartzog, who this month published a book on the topic called Privacy’s Blueprint.
“When you download an app, the entire experience is engineered to get you to give permission,” Hartzog tells Quartz. “We think we have control, but in fact our ability to say no or exert meaningful control is slowly eroding.”"