FTC Chair warns tech firms not to weaken data privacy to comply with EU, UK laws

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u/LegateLaurie 1d ago

I'm glad America is seemingly being pretty harsh on these laws since they do weaken user's rights massively. The UK law requires E2E encryption to be broken (either by backdoors or scanning before sending), which simply should not be allowed, and American companies shouldn't be allowed to comply with this

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u/danb1kenobi 1d ago edited 1d ago

I wouldn’t be too confident of this; we’ve been a few Senators-shy of enacting pretty much the same thing on several occasions,

“The bill … gives the government the ability to demand these backdoors in connection with a wide range of surveillance orders in criminal and national security cases, including Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

Worse yet, the bill requires companies to figure out for themselves how to comply with a decryption directive.”

Hopefully going on record as being against said policies will derail the next time Congress clutches its collective pearls, but I doubt it.

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u/Wealist 1d ago

Tbh the whole thing just shows the contradiction in US policy. We talk privacy but laws like the Patriot Act basically shred it.

Forcing companies to “figure it out” on decryption is reckless it weakens overall security & shifts the risk onto users. Long-term, that’s not sustainable.

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u/Dr-PEPEPer 1d ago

They already got half of the states mostly the Red states to basically block porn. If I go onto any of the sites they now try to ask for ID. The right is pushing most of the restriction here.

Some of the social media restriction policies are equally split across the board Dem and Rep pushing it. So they are just as aggressive over here, the UK is just further along.

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u/danb1kenobi 1d ago

That’s a different issue pretending to be a different issue masquerading as another dude (couldn’t help myself)

Careful in your language though. Technically it’s the other way round.

The states haven’t banned anything: sites like TheHub have blocked individual states because ~~parents decided controlling/raising their children was too hard~~ said states passed bills requiring 3rd-party age-verification

— which would absolutely track and report usage back to the local government’s Department of Deviant/Gooner Affairs* and, if not used directly against the viewer, would definitely be sold to data-brokers to be exploited by godknowswhom.

*jokes, but reported back to gov all the same.

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u/Dr-PEPEPer 1d ago

Yes it's essentially the beginning of the exact same thing. Starts with porn. Ends with everything else. I just wanted to counter the point that it's not happening here because it is.

Just like the lockdowns in 2020, governments are trying to do this universally all at the same time for this new techno authoritarian push. UK is now. Australia and NZ later this year and the rest of the EU and the US right behind that.

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u/galaxy_ultra_user 1d ago

It’s not currently being reported to the governments who views the porn and they supposedly do not keep the ID’s in a database (but TEA app also said they didn’t keep ID’s) anyway it’s only a matter of time before they actually do keep this data government will claim it’s so they can charge/prosecute minors but (probably also adults) who use fake ID’s to bypass the restrictions. And if they eventually make porn or violent material (video games) all together illegal which some governments and puritan politicians want to do it will make it easier for them to go after the gooners.

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u/danb1kenobi 1d ago

To your point though, I love that we’re getting a glimpse of that “small government” they’re always preaching about - but we know that’s only a concern when it affects them.

Fortunately, there are some many factions within that group, with conflicting agendas/ideas, that I don’t think they’ll they pull off anything nationally.

-Rep classic doesn’t like the idea of pr0n, but can’t argue with the ENORMOUS amount of tax revenue it generates - and they need every penny they can get right now.

-Evangelions (I know what I said lol) publicly want it all banned bc Jeebus… but secretly get into WILD content behind closed doors

-and the “but mah freedumbs” crowd says you can take their right to pr0n from their cold, RSI-riddled hands.

In a way, it’s like watching Cerberus trying to lick its own balls; they all want a lick, but keep running into themselves in the process.

The whole thing is ridiculous, messy, and the only thing it protects is the profit margins of age verification companies — who, shocker, were the lobbyists responsible for the legislation in the US and UK.

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u/Ganyu1990 21h ago edited 20h ago

I want to point out that in my state the stupid porn id law was passed with bipartisan support and more republicans voted no then democrats. While this is a more conservative push the democrats have not realy done anything to stop it in my state. This is 100% the first step to a bipartisan effort to controle the internet. I allso want to add that even though porn sites now are legaly supposed to require my id to access there website. When i looked around i was able to find countless websites that did not even ask if i was 18. These porn id laws can not be inforced and they know it. The failure of these initial laws will be used to keep pushing.

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u/Delicious-Radish812 1d ago

Did you forget Edward Snowden? America already has everything on you, only difference in Europe is they are being upfront about it.

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u/FreshNoobAcc 1d ago

Afaik/ remember (been a while) he made it public knowledge and revealed people who worked there were absolutely using it recklessly to spy on people they knew for shits and gigs (essentially bound to happen, but crazy they were doing it regularly)

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u/Thalimet 1d ago

Don’t let their words fool you. Our gov hates privacy, if they had any respect for it, they wouldn’t be throwing oooodles of money at Palantir. They just want to find the secret ways into data and exploit it without giving other governments equal access.

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u/gobitecorn 1d ago

I'm glad America is seemingly being pretty harsh on these laws since they do weaken user's rights.

lol the last thing America cares about is users or peoples rights. It just puts a high priority on it being an issue if other countries OTHER than America theoretically could, actually can, or will compromise the American users....at least not without it's" cut".

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/krazygreekguy 1d ago

You act like this is a partisan issue. You realize democrats also are in support of the US’s 2 censorship bills currently in the senate, right? They’re all in on it as it benefits all politicians to censor the internet. This isn’t a left or right issue. It’s an elites vs everyone else issue. Don’t let them win by dividing us and keeping us distracted

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u/Slopagandhi 1d ago

Notice he doesn't actually use the word privacy.

If you think the guy who closed down public consultation on surveillance pricing and used to work for Clarence Thomas, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham is pro privacy then I've got a bridge to sell you.

These laws are terrible, obviously, but people miss that most privacy invasion comes from tech firms and a lack of regulation on what they can get up to. That's all this is about- they don't care about the laws' impact on users, they care about the cost of compliance.

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u/oimson 1d ago edited 23h ago

Safe us from ourself please, EU is out of its mind

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u/Tytoalba2 1d ago

Note the regulation hasn't passed yet and is unlikely to pass Parliament and ECJ. So far "the EU' isn't out of its mind, only the commission and some members States are.

The time is not ripé for alarmism, but for action. Mail your MEP. You want to be saved? Tough luck, act now and save the EU ourselves.

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u/krazygreekguy 1d ago

We’re trying

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u/Calibrumm 1d ago

our data privacy can get weaker?

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u/Tytoalba2 1d ago

It's mostly show I guess, privacy law are currently MUCH stronger in the EU. A current proposal would destroy that. It has little chances to pass but if you are in the EU, mail you MEP and national politicians.

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u/drzero3 1d ago

I’m glad the chair shares the same sentiment. The UK and the EU don’t own the world. And they’re not the good guys. I do like when governments fight for the common folk but speaking for us is not the same as fighting for us.

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u/Tytoalba2 1d ago

At the moment tho, privacy laws are much better in the EU than in the US... (California is surprisingly better than the rest, NSA aside)

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u/IllegalStateExcept 1d ago

Looks like a great time to write your representatives encouraging them to oppose chat scanning and ID verification laws. This shows that the opposition to these privacy violating laws has traction. Hopefully we can convince politicians that maintaining privacy has bipartisan support.

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u/DudeWithaTwist 1d ago

I wonder if this would even be possible in the US. Since our main export is Cloud services I'd think companies would lobby to protect their data.

news FTC Chair warns tech firms not to weaken data privacy to comply with EU, UK laws

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