Ask HN: Thoughts on the 4 tech bills making the rounds on the US senate?

7 pointsmunfred6y ago2 comments

On July 2018, US Senator Mark Warren released a whitepaper[0] discussing 20 topics for potential tech regulation. In 2019, Warren and others introduced four technology regulation bills along the lines discussed in the whitepaper. I highly recommend reading the original bill texts, they are short and easy to read.

[1] S.2658 - ACCESS Act of 2019 It require communications platforms with 100M monthly active users in the US to make their services interoperable with other platforms. The bill presumes that platforms using open protocols already (like email) are fine. Facebook and it’s messenger platform is likely to be the only one meeting the threshold.

[2] S.1951 - DASHBOARD Act

It applies to online platforms or data brokers with over 100M monthly users in the United States for most months over the last year, and says they should disclose a lot of information about the user data they hold.

[4] S.1578 - Do Not Track Act It says that the FTC must implement a DNT system that defines a standard for devices, websites and services to send and receive DNT requests, and develop an app for users to send DNT requests.

[5] S.1084 - DETOUR Act It says that large online operators (defined as services with more than 100M monthly active users anywhere, not just in the US) may not use misleading interfaces or unclear wording to mislead the user. It also says that they can only conduct behavioral experiments.

Links:

[0] Whitepaper: https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/d/3/d32c2f17-cc76-4e11-8aa9-897eb3c90d16/65A7C5D983F899DAAE5AA21F57BAD944.social-media-regulation-proposals.pdf

[1]ACCESS Act of 2019: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2658/text

[2]DASHBOARD: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1951/text

[3]Do Not Track: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1578/text

[4]DETOUR: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1084/text

2 comments

wethebestcoder6y ago

S.1084 is worded like they are going to use it to pull a peasent off the street for threats of violence. That is it's worded so vague that it applies to anything pretty much giving the prosecutor complete discretion over who to prosecute.

tlb6y ago

The ACCESS act 3(c) says:

> Exemption for certain services: The obligations under this section shall not apply to a product or service by which a large communications platform provider does not generate any income or other compensation, directly or indirectly, from collecting, using, or sharing user data.

Are there any >100M user networks today that don't monetize user data?

It might encourage some growing networks to not monetize user data at all, if that's not their primary business model.

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