The U.S. elections, for the first time, showed a vast turnaround; a large number of voters came out to vote to ensure greater privacy protections. There is a lot of expectation from the Biden administration. The pressure from social and political circles is driving things towards the federal privacy law—ensuring privacy for consumers.
It’s been less than a week, and Biden has made serious decisions—the new US president means business.
On Jan. 20, former Vice President Joe Biden took the seat as the 46th President of the United States. Biden’s approach towards big tech differs from Obama’s; the last time he was in the office as the VP.
The message from the top administration is clear, and in the coming days, we might see Biden taking action upon the digital activist’s pledge. At least, all the indicators reflect the federal privacy to get approval under new management.
Silicon Valley is something democrats are uncomfortable with. In recent times, there have been a lot of controversial debates on how the social media giants collect user’s information—making consumers’ privacy vulnerable and the competitive hold they possess.
The dominance of Big Tech
Things have changed for big tech such as Facebook facing a big lawsuit in the U.S.—that could potentially break the company. The concept of breaking companies (tech giants) is to lower companies’ dominance like Apple, Google, and Amazon—allowing small digital enterprises to work in a free environment. And to allow consumers the freedom to protect their privacy, too.
Though tech giants, including Google and Facebook, have replied on various occasions that they work in the premises of law. The data collection method is precise, and it is collected with the consent of users. However, these companies have been found guilty of breaking privacy laws in Europe and have paid huge fines as well.
Democrats have a representation of 48 members in the Senate, while Republicans have 50 members. The two independent members are siding with the government, which makes Democrats even with the republicans. The Biden administration—Democrat’s members in the Senate—would push to make the federal data privacy law into an act.
The exceptions of Biden’s social and political groups are to change things around for the American people.
On Jan 20, a consumer group Public Citizen stated they are looking forward to president Biden’s policy to pave the way on protecting the privacy and take down the tech firms exploiting users’ privacy.
Advocacy groups want the U.S. government to ban facial recognition technology and change the mafia-based discriminatory policing. Things would change with new regulations and all the people coming together to work in the community’s interest, not corporations.
Would the Biden Administration take on Big Tech?
Privacy concerns have mounted over the years and continue to discomfort the consumers over how data is gathered and used. And now, Privacy Activists have pledged Biden to take action on Bit Tech’s online privacy policy.
Donald Trump did a big favor to Biden before leaving the office. Trump’s antitrust head called on Congress to pass legislation that would restrict big companies from acquiring small firms. Earlier, Democrats made a similar proposal.
The new merger legislation would break the dominant culture of large companies that keep on building empires. Biden has the soft ground to pass this bill as soon as possible.
But things would not stop here if the legislation turns into law. There are a lot of other matters regarding consumers’ privacy that need to be addressed—completing the federal privacy law is the most important.
In a letter to the U.S. president, Public Citizen, including ten other digital rights wings, urged the new management to give freedom to regulators. The advocacy groups want Biden to create an independent Data Protection Authority, backed by federal privacy law. So, they can keep a healthy check and balance over consumer data collection.
We hope Biden has taken the government with sincere intentions, and he would change the corporate sector during his 100 days in office. The comprehensive digital privacy law is on the table—which was proposed in 2019—and the new government must put an end to this big tech’s dominance.
