In rare positive news Massachusetts is weighing banning the sale of user location data. Do you feel like this will make a difference if it gets passed?
EDIT: Fixed Link
It’s a small step, but does not solve the issue of location being tracked to start with. A better law would be to ban the tracking of location without consent, along with banning requiring location tracking for services that don’t technically require it.
About time someone try to do it
Your article link is broken, so I haven’t read it, and can’t comment on it directly if it answers these questions, but…
I think it really will depend on how it’s written. If it’s only banning the “sale” of user location data, it might be possible to get around by selling unrelated data that just happens to come with location-identifiable data as an extra ‘free’ include, or something stupid like that… It’s really going to come down to how it’s enforced, and what kind of penalties there are for violating it. If it’s enforced intermittently, and the fines are too low, nobody’s going to care.
That said, it’s a great step in a good direction. I’m from MA; the government here is occasionally somewhat sane when it comes to protections like this, so I’ve got hope that this will have some teeth. (Maybe unlike the right-to-repair legislation that passed years ago and still has yet to be enforced…)
Edit after the new link was posted:
The most exciting thing in here to me is:
Requiring law enforcement to provide a warrant to access user location data could also help curtail the rising trend of law enforcement buying that information commercially.
Law enforcement is quickly moving from “Mostly neutral” to “Outright hostile” to the general population and anything that curbs their abuses of the system is a net positive in my book.
Apologies for the broken link. Yes the portion regarding law enforcement is the most exciting part of this. I’m just happy someone out there is trying. But hey who says the government will even follow the laws if something like this is passed. Additionally this law will work on the state level but not the federal level.
Thanks! I’ve updated to the working link
