Hacker News Reader

Comment by bobthepanda | Hacker News Reader

Breach consumer trust at your own peril.

At some tipping point I could see HIPAA-style mandates come into force for general data.

Illinois’ biometric data law has already started to make it's way into some courts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_Information_Privacy_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Ac...

Took effect this year.

The NYPA seems to have more HIPAA-like teeth to it. https://www.adweek.com/digital/new-yorks-privacy-bill-failed...

I'd hope to see something like this at the national level, but state level is a good start.

Maybe it’s petty but I kind of like the idea of it being a morass of 50 different privacy laws so that a company has to tiptoe through a global minefield to sell data about me.

I would like to say you are right, but the pendulum seems to swinging in the direction of rendering HIPAA toothless. Breaking point may cone, but I have zero idea what it will be given the breaches we already saw.

The largest effect of data privacy regulations is on self-policing behavior. Every person at every hospital in the US knows what HIPAA is and is at least aware of it and potential impacts. There is training, consideration is given to it with respect to IT decisions, etc.

It is a very different set of behaviors than pre-HIPAA.

Same with GDPR, you very clearly see large corporations at least asking: "Do we need this data?" and there's a patchwork of state privacy laws (CCPA being the most prominent) that are in effect.

Case in point: Illinois has really stringent biometric data laws that include facial recognition and I would not be surprised at all if they were right now preparing for legal action against Clearview for violations.

Perhaps you haven't been paying attention recently to how things go in the US. If there is any kind of regulation, it will be loophole-ridden and only implemented after consulting with the absolute worst offenders to make sure it won't impact their bottom line too much.

Law enforcement's use of this style of abusive technology will never be curtailed or in any way reigned in, but seeing as American law enforcement has never abused their power in the past, I'm sure that will continue to not be an issue.

> I could see HIPAA-style mandates

That would be helpful, but let's not forget that HIPAA isn't exactly some sort of gold standard. It's reasonably weak and full of loopholes.

It'll take a few libel suits for false accusations first. Plus a court willing to award meaningful damages.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com