FTC Proposes Blanket Prohibition Preventing Facebook from Monetizing Youth Data
ftc.gov
ftc.gov
> Pause on the launch of new products, services: The company would be prohibited from releasing new or modified products, services, or features without written confirmation from the assessor that its privacy program is in full compliance with the order’s requirements and presents no material gaps or weaknesses.
Do we really want the government to have to approve every new product a privacy company releases? That seems quite extreme and typically only applies to very specific industries with broad safety concerns (like medical care).
- "a political stunt"
- "...no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory."
- "Let’s be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industry-wide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil,"
That last bit might be valid in part, but I'm just here for the schadenfreude.
[0] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/ftc-says-faceboo...
Enjoy all the viagra ads!
- I thought unobtrusive keyword-based ads in Google searches were okay, when they didn't fill the results page.
- I think context-sensitive ads are fantastic. People reading a boat-building site see ads for boat-building or other related products/services. I would click on these ads.
- Word of mouth, vetted reviews, brand loyalty...all valid, rights-preserving approaches.
Since the lore is that targeting gets higher click-through rates, maybe small businesses could pay a little less for the less skeezy alternatives. Targeted advertising is forever linked in my mind to Zuckerberg's "dumb fucks" email. Facebook/Meta is the biggest offender in this space, and I'm happy to watch it die in a fire.
Your solution would decimate the millions of small businesses that rely on targeted advertising to get consumers.
Which is why for the ones they do win it is so important for the chance of that user converting to be as high as it can be.
I apologize for feeling the need to even ask this, but are you sure you know what HIPAA actually is?
HIPAA prohibits medical providers from disclosing patients' medical records/info to third parties without their consent. Medical providers can still share that data with third parties with patients' consent. And patients are also absolutely free to share their own health data with absolutely anyone, no consent from anyone else is required.
It is a bit more complex and involved than this, so a simple answer would be "it depends". However, no matter who it is that is disclosing your health data, they are in the clear to do so as long as you consented to that disclosure and the contract/agreement itself was legally in the clear.
For more caveats/rules around this, I suggest checking the official government page talking about it[0]. I found it to be pretty well-written for a layman person like me to understand.
0. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials...