Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang wants your data to be your property

[redqueen]

Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur turned Democratic presidential hopeful, may not be a leading candidate in the race, but he has gained attention for his unique ideas about how to address technology -- the companies behind it and the impact it's having on the country. He has proposed giving every American $12,000 per year to soften the blow of jobs lost to automation, and he has toyed with campaigning via hologram. While these ideas have come out in bits and pieces, Yang officially revealed his comprehensive tech policy today.

Yang's plan is a four-pronged approach. It calls for treating data like property and establishing a Digital Bill of Rights, creating a Department of the Attention Economy to minimize the health impacts of modern tech, stopping the spread of misinformation, as well as a new approach to regulating tech companies.

In a blog post announcing his plans, Yang wrote:

"The advancement of technology in America has driven the advancement of humanity nationally and globally. But technology has also outpaced our government's understanding of it, and regulations are falling short of protecting us from Big Tech companies that are prioritizing profits over our well-being."

Yang says personal data is the fastest growing industry in the US, and he believes citizens should have more control, like the ability to see how their data is being used and opt out if they choose. He wants to study the impact technology is having on "kids' brains, socio-emotional states, and cognitive and physical development," and he's calling for accountability from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Regarding misinformation, Yang writes, "We must address once and for all the publisher vs. platform grey area that tech companies have lived in for years."

...

https://www.engadget.com/amp/2019/11/14/andrew-yang-2020-tech-policy

[defacto7]

1. I agree with this. It's so simple so logical

that personal data should be the property of the person supplying it.

[ancianita]

2. Also, too good to be true for him to make happen. He'd be setting himself up for huge

opposition from all data mining entities including FAGA.

It's not a promise he can likely deliver on.

[defacto7]

4. I agree.

[redqueen]

6. That's the same argument used against so many ideas...

so not super surprising to see it here too

[ancianita]

8. I've myself have never made this point. It's just part of a larger argument I could make but won't.

My bottom line is that any Democrat on their worst day is better than ANY Republican on their best day.

[LanternWaste]

3. I recently came across a term that startled me in its stark accuracy. 'Surveillance Capitalism'

"...a distributed and largely uncontested new expression of power which constitutes hidden mechanisms of extraction, commodification, and control that threatens core values such as freedom, democracy, and privacy"

(The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power ~ Shoshana Zuboff)

[redqueen]

7. Yep - it needs to be addressed and most lawmakers are way behind the curve

on even understanding the issue.

[LanternWaste]

9. I like to think I'm up-to-date on macro-concerns...

but this extent of data-mining and surveillance by the corporations was a bit of a shocker to me as well.

I knew the thumbnail sketch of it, but after reading Zuboff's book, I can get why a lot of people are in the dark as to the full extent of not only what they collect, but how they use that data in a dynamic, but subtly intrusive manner.

[Politicub]

5. This is a winning issue that Yang is uniquely qualified to address

Data privacy and ownership of our personal information are important to so many people because of the rampant abuse of social media companies and others who mine our data to sell it.

Breaking up big tech is important, but ownership of our data is more urgent because there are zero federal laws that address it. I’m hoping that California’s leadership here grows to include everyone.