I wrote in Tech Policy Press about the tech industry's Tobacco-style campaign to undermine privacy and stop states from passing stronger laws.
We know that Big Tech wants to sabotage privacy law. But look at whose footsteps they're following.
Boosts 🚀 appreciated!
In sum, Big Tech is pulling straight from the toxic strategy that Big Tobacco used in the 1990s. There are 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣ steps to the strategy.
Back then, Big Tobacco invented the "Accommodation Program," a campaign ultimately aimed at federal preemption of indoor smoking laws. 2/
Step 1️⃣:
The campaign by tobacco companies in the 90s had the same hallmarks of the tech industry's all-out assault on privacy today: an arsenal of lobbyists, front groups galore, and a state-by-state legislative strategy to pass weak laws. 3/ https://themarkup.org/privacy/2022/05/26/tech-industry-groups-are-watering-down-attempts-at-privacy-regulation-one-state-at-a-time
Step 2️⃣:
Block any possibility of future progress at the state level. To do that, both Tech and Tobacco companies shed crocodile tears about a "patchwork" of state and local laws. Then and now, that language shows up any time industry is trying to delegitimize state laws. 4/
Step 3️⃣:
For Tobacco then and Tech now, the final step is to use preemption to erase state laws and curb a state’s ability to pass new, stronger laws in the future. 5/
Where does that leave us?
Phillip Morris never succeeded in preempting states’ ability to pass anti-smoking laws.
We should be guided (and inspired) by that history, and keep fighting to keep preemption off the table for a federal privacy law. 6/6 https://www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-is-trying-to-burn-privacy-to-the-ground-and-theyre-using-big-tobaccos-strategy-to-do-it/
@snowjake great post and great thread, i completely agree. It was really disappointing to see privacy organizations like EPIC endorse a preemptive bill back in 2022 with ADPPA (although I'm happy to say that ACLU and EFF didn't). In September 2022 I wrote
"Keep in mind that Big Tech is playing a long game here. If Congress passes a weak preemptive ADPPA this year, they win. If not, they'll go back to pushing states to pass weak privacy laws and watering down attempts at privacy regulation, one state at a time."
And sure enough that's what Big Tech's been doing. But privacy advocates can play a long game too! As well as the staste and local bills you list, in 2023 Washington state passed My Health My Data, a consumer health data privacy law that's in some ways the strongest privacy law in the country.
Of course, things haven't gone so well in other states -- and it's quite possible that APRA would preempt some of My Health My Data (even though APRA has an exemption for state laws related to health data, its definition of health data is much narrower than My Health My Data's, so it's hard to know just how it would play out). Fortunately it appears dead for now ... so the battle continues.
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