Newsom's Veto of Bill Allowing Consumers to Globally Opt Out of Data Use is Bad for Everyone Except Tech Companies Like Google, says Consumer Watchdog

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Sep 23, 2024, 16:22 ET

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Consumer Watchdog called out Governor Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that would have allowed Californians to globally signal their data privacy preferences as a big loss for consumers that raises questions about the power tech monopolies like Google have over his office.

The bill—Assembly Bill 3048 (Lowenthal)—would have made web browsers honor people's privacy preferences universally instead of forcing consumers to do it business by business.

"People don't want to click thousands of times to tell companies not to collect their data," said Justin Kloczko, tech and privacy advocate for Consumer Watchdog. "We're perplexed that the governor wouldn't sign a bill that the California Privacy Protection Agency itself sponsored to give Californians easy control over their data. Exercising data privacy rights is an important issue, as data is foundational to things like AI and algorithmic discrimination. Now California has missed its opportunity to be the first state in the country to make browsers offer a simple feature. It's troubling the power that companies such as Google appear to have over the Governor's office."

In his letter to the State Assembly, Newsom reconciled his decision not to sign the bill by saying, "most internet browsers either include such an option or, if users choose, they can download a plug-in with the same functionality."

"What the governor didn't mention is that Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Microsoft Edge don't offer a global opt out and they make up for nearly 90 percent of the browser market share," said Kloczko. "That's what matters. And people don't want to install plug-ins. Safari, which is the default browsers on iPhones, doesn't even accept a plug-in."

"Instead of building on seminal rights that voters enacted with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), Newsom took consumers a step back by refusing to make opting out easy," said the nonprofit advocacy group.

Over the past several months, Consumer Watchdog has been spotlighting data collection and data privacy rights. Less than 1 percent of Californians exercised their data privacy rights with major data brokers such as Acxiom, Consumer Watchdog found in its new report, "Data Stalkers." That is before a global opt out for data brokers became law, a bill that Newsom signed, said Consumer Watchdog.

Read Consumer Watchdog's report "Data Stalkers" here.

Read Consumer Watchdog's report on the difficulty of opting out here.

Recently, a group funded by Amazon and Google named the Connected Commerce Council lobbied Newsom's office to veto AB 3048, according to Politico.

Newsom's veto also follows his blessing of a deal between the state and tech companies that will divert millions of state dollars to tech companies to fund AI and journalism, a move backed by Google and widely derided by the journalism industry. The deal thwarted legislation that would have forced tech companies like Google to pay news organizations for distributing their content.

This summer, the data broker National Public Data was subject to perhaps the biggest hack in history, exposing 2.7 billion pieces of data, including the social security number of potentially every American.

"Consumers are at a greater risk for identity theft, but without this legislation, it's that much harder for a person to sever the data pipeline," said Kloczko.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog