Consumer Privacy Advocates Want to Regulate Facebook, Tech Media Companies

Backers of a California ballot initiative pushing for consumer privacy protections say the latest issues around privacy and Facebook are an indication that technology companies that collect consumer information need more regulations.

Hedge Fund executive Rick Arney is co-author of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, a measure that would allow consumers to know what personal information companies like Facebook are collecting about them. The measure would also allow consumers to say no to the sale of that information.

"Right now you can't tell companies to stop selling your personal information," Arney says.

Real estate developer Alistair Mctaggart, a major funder of the measure, wrote a letter to Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg earlier this week calling on Zuckerberg to support the ballot measure.

"It is time to be honest with Facebook users and shareholders about what information was collected, sold or breached in the Cambridge Analytica debacle," Mctaggart wrote. "And to come clean about the true basis for your opposition to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018."

Arney says people want companies to respect their personal information, and he says his group has enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot in November.

"Consumers are clamoring to tell companies to stop selling their information," he says.

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg wrote a response on Facebook to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In it, Zuckerberg says the social media company will take three steps to ensure user data is not compromised.

"We have a responsibility to protect your data," Zuckerberg wrote. "And if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you."

In a recent poll conducted by the marketing firm Edelman, the majority of those who responded in California said they'd support tougher regulations for companies like Facebook and Twitter. Approximately 87 percent of Californians said they want tech companies to be held financially liable for data breaches. Edelman surveyed about 1,500 people, one-third come from San Francisco, one-third from L.A. and a third from the rest of the state.

Edelman's 2018 Trust Barometer survey found that social media companies make up one of the least trusted industries, second only to pharmaceutical companies.

"They're asking for things like breaking up tech companies that get too big before they are monopolies," says Stacey Zolt Hara, managing director of corporate affairs for Edelman. "They’re asking for the reduction of skilled workers who are brought in from other countries."

Zolt Hara says the survey showed that on the macro level, concerns that are driving a call for regulation go to the very specific, like data privacy.

"Fifty-six percent of Californians are concerned that the tech industry is not protecting them from data security threats, and 89 percent believe the tech industry should be financially liable for data breaches," Zolt Hara says.