
Can Antitrust Law Rein in Facebook’s Data-Mining Profit Machine? - howard941
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/can-antitrust-law-rein-in-facebooks-data-mining-profit-machine
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autoexec
Rather than try to apply our existing laws in novel ways to protect consumers
against predatory data collection and bad behavior from entities that we
couldn't have imagined when those laws were originally written we really need
new laws and regulations specially targeting these new beasts. It's long
overdue that our legal system catch up with the internet and the abuses it has
allowed.

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bilbo0s
> _Can Antitrust Law Rein in Facebook’s Data-Mining Profit Machine?..._

Probably not.

But an anti - "data sharing" law can. A HIPAA like law for personal data would
stop, not only FB, but all of these companies in their tracks. Just make it
illegal to sell access, in any fashion, to a user's personal data.

To get the government on your side, just make it like HIPAA. Law enforcement
can still access your data, _if they have a warrant, and demonstrate an urgent
need_. Everyone else is SOL. Any violations should be punished in the same
draconian fashion that HIPAA violations are punished. (This will make the
business of selling data unprofitable in the extreme.)

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citrablue
In your opinion, have HIPAA laws been a success? I've worked in 2 roles where
I was the part of the technical implementations of compliance... and man, the
stories I could tell.

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chillacy
Like it was a bureaucratic nightmare or it wasn't properly implemented?

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citrablue
it was a checkbox in a training ledger that nobody else cared about. People
were passing around unencrypted csvs on flash disks, sending them to their
gmail accounts via email. Parent company at one place (healthcare provider)
couldn't even reconcile how many patients they had each year. (It was under
15k, so we're not talking like millions of patients)

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chiefalchemist
It's difficult to imagine a government that is pro-surveillance and dedicated
to its expansion is going to want dismantle / disarm its #1 partner - informal
or otherwise.

To think that no one of significant power / influence in Washington DC has
been aware of FB's depth and breadth is naive. Things are, from that POV,
exactly how they're supposed to be.

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kjar
Can Facebook wither as a social pariah?

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jerf
Maybe, but it won't happen fast enough. No sarcasm/snark; I mean this
seriously. Things are happening now and we can't wait for it to die of old age
to fix them.

