Privacy

Balancing User Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality
AR/VR devices create novel issues for user privacy due to the scope, scale, and sensitivity of the information they collect. To mitigate harms, policymakers should reform the current patchwork regulatory landscape for data privacy, which fails to address some risks while over-regulating in response to others.
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For a menu of actionable ideas for policymakers related to privacy, see ITIF’s “Tech Policy To-Do List.”

Privacy
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March 17, 2021
It’s Time For a New Approach to Solving America’s Data Privacy Dilemma
The country needs a grand bargain on data privacy legislation that empowers consumers but also reduces regulatory burdens.
March 4, 2021
Balancing User Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality
AR/VR devices create novel issues for user privacy due to the scope, scale, and sensitivity of the information they collect. To mitigate harms, policymakers should reform the current patchwork regulatory landscape for data privacy, which fails to address some risks while over-regulating in response to others.
March 4, 2021
How to Balance Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality
ITIF released a new report and hosted a conversation with experts and industry leaders in AR/VR to discuss what unique privacy risks these technologies raise, how AR/VR providers are mitigating these concerns, and how existing and proposed privacy laws and regulations will impact AR/VR technologies.
January 27, 2021
Is Facebook’s Update to WhatsApp Privacy Rules Really a Problem?
Is this really a privacy or an antitrust problem, or yet another example of a conflated, little understood issue?
January 22, 2021
Washington State Privacy Act Demonstrates the Need for Federal Preemption
Consumers and businesses are both better off with a single federal law than 50 inconsistent state laws, especially given the cross-border nature of the Internet.
January 4, 2021
The Year Ahead: Twenty-Four Ways Congress and the Biden Administration Can Advance Good Tech Policy in 2021
If Washington wants to show voters that government is doing something more than simply saying no or being ideologically dug in, then lawmakers and the administration should work to advance a set of actionable technology policy measures that would grow the U.S. economy.
December 14, 2020
How to Address Privacy Questions Raised by the Expansion of Augmented Reality in Public Spaces
Augmented reality (AR) amplifies some of the most pressing privacy concerns for bystanders in the digital world and combines them in new ways. Policymakers should develop safeguards that allow for shifting perceptions of privacy in public space.
December 3, 2020
‘Schrems II’: What Invalidating the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Means for Transatlantic Trade and Innovation
The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield’s demise affects thousands of firms that relied on it to transfer data. Policymakers should realize the enormous trade and innovation stakes involved—both bilateral and global—and build an improved framework for data protection and digital trade.
November 4, 2020
Proposition 24 Took Away the Only Good Thing in California’s Privacy Legislation
California’s Proposition 24, which amended the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), passed on Tuesday, forcing businesses that have already struggled to comply with the CCPA’s onerous and costly obligations to start over with a new set of even more burdensome rules. Notably, it removed one of the CCPA’s only positive, common-sense provisions: its 30-day notice and cure period, which gives businesses a grace period to avoid penalties if they fix violations within 30 days.
October 26, 2020
Why Facebook’s Project Aria Makes the Case for Light-Touch Privacy Regulation
 

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