Reality 2.0 Newsletter - April 1, 2021: Protecting Your Privacy

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A Quick Plug

Episode 63: Is Your Privacy Set by Marketers in Aeron Chairs?

Katherine Druckman and Doc Searls talk to Don Marti and Shawn Powers about realistic data privacy measures, surveillance marketing, and privacy regulation.

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“Essentially, the surveillance marketing dystopia is the entire free world against a few overgrown mailing list brokers with Aeron chairs.”

Last week, we talked to Don Marti and Shawn Powers about privacy regulations and surveillance marketing. This week, we thought it would be fun to highlight some of their work.

Don writes extensively about privacy issues on his blog at https://blog.zgp.org/, and of particular interest are his two posts about a shell script for automating CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) disclosure and deletion requests. Find them here: CCPA opt out, nerd edition and CCPA for nerds, part 2

Included in these posts are links to useful boilerplate letters both for opting out directly to Facebook advertisers and generally opting out under CCPA. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, Shawn Powers fans have something new to get excited about. Shawn has started a web comic! We hope you’ll go offer him some words of encouragement so he’ll keep going and keep us all entertained.

Thanks, Shawn. We needed this.

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This Week’s Reading List

  • CCPA opt out, nerd edition — While we figure out how to make general-purpose CCPA opt-outs practical.

  • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Laws and Regulations | US EPA — The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the public law that creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. The law describes the waste management program mandated by Congress that gave EPA authority to develop the RCRA program. The term RCRA is often used interchangeably to refer to the law, regulations and EPA policy and guidance. 

  • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act - Wikipedia — The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.[1]

  • Global Privacy Control — Take Control Of Your Privacy — Online privacy should be accessible to everyone. It starts with a simpler way to exercise your rights.

  • CCPA guidance for authorized agents — The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) creates a variety of privacy rights for California consumers. Microsoft makes it easy for consumers to exercise their rights, including the rights, via a verifiable request, that we (i) disclose and access what personal data we collect, use, disclose, and sell and (ii) delete the consumer’s personal data. Per the CCPA, consumers may exercise their rights through an authorized agent. This guidance is intended for authorized agents acting on behalf of a consumer looking to exercise the above CCPA rights.

  • The State of Authorized Agent Opt Outs Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (PDF)

  • Consumer Reports Model State Privacy Act — Though consumers have a fundamental right to privacy, there is no comprehensive federal privacy law granting them baseline privacy and security protections. Instead of leaving it to consumers to “opt-in” or “opt-out,” this bill protects consumer privacy by prohibiting companies from engaging in privacy-invasive behaviors. 


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