The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1, 2020, giving residents key rights over some of their private data—data that is currently collected and commoditized without express authorization. In the discussion that follows, Dr. Jennifer King, Director of Privacy at Stanford’s CIS, explains the new law and how far it may go to protect consumer personal data.
What kinds of data are companies such as Facebook, Google, and Waze collecting? What’s the most surprising way that they are using that data?
The New York Times ran a very interesting series about location data and how our apps track us and sell that personal data on to advertisers and political organizations. The data is supposed to be anonymous, but it paints such a clear picture—with information about daily habits, from the doctors we visit, schools we attend, places we work, the people and stores and restaurants we visit. It was so clear a picture that the reporters were able to identify individuals from the data and they then contacted those people and interviewed them. It’s creepy—and outrageous—that these images of us are built with our deeply personal data about our daily habits and it’s unregulated. There are no restrictions on this data. Verizon and AT&T were selling data to repossession companies to collect on loans, until it was made public and they were shamed into stopping. It’s very shady. This is an entire grey area—not illegal, but very questionable.
Another article obtained information from a company that gives other companies reputation scores. It described one example in which Airbnb had handed over all of a customer’s emails—all communication that she had engaged in while using the app. They also obtained details about her use of DoorDash. The third-party had no interaction with the original person. But they had this very personal information about her, down to full emails about apartments she rented and the food she ate. So, the data that is collected about us through our mobile apps, put together, reveals a lot about us. And it’s collected and used largely without our knowledge or express approval.
Read the full interview here.