Testimony on Privacy Policies before the California State Assembly

This morning, Jules Polonetsky, FPF’s Executive Director, will be speaking before the California State Assembly Joint Committee Hearing on Digital Privacy on the question of whether privacy policies adequately protect consumer privacy.  Jules’ testimony will note that “[p]rivacy policies are not useful for many consumers, but are essential accountability mechanisms. Consumers need to be able to rely on the design and user interface of a service to quickly grasp how data is being used.”

Jules will discuss a variety of different mechanisms that organizations can implement both to protect consumers and offer them value for their data.  FPF has proposed several ideas for places to start, such as (1) more transparency of algorithms, (2) treating data use like a feature, (3) advances in de-identification, (4) serious self-regulation and (5) effective privacy professionals.  Policymakers need to encourage creative approaches to addressing privacy challenges.

Read Jules’ full testimony here.