Greetings from Kittery, Maine!
I write to you just before embarking on a long-awaited vacation for the next week. With the recent onslaught of privacy news, especially in the last couple weeks, I certainly welcome some time to unplug from email and recharge my cells.
That said, we released a new episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast today. I recently caught up with Jennifer King, a Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, to discuss her work in the human-technology interaction space. In particular, we focused on the current notice-and-choice paradigm, something she has referred to as a "farce."
No doubt notice and choice have long been embedded in the digital world, but as we know, the average consumer isn't reading a 15,000-word privacy notice for every product and service they purchase. So, how much choice are consumers really afforded? Will privacy laws like the California Privacy Rights Act have an effect here?
Jen brings an interesting perspective. She's not a lawyer, but has a deep background in human-technology interaction, so she has some novel perspectives on how the current notice-and-choice paradigm could be overhauled. Of course, it won't be easy, but there's plenty of food for thought in our discussion, and it's not all philosophical. She shares some practical insight for creating helpful and user-friendly notices. If you decide to listen, I hope you find it interesting.
I usually go on vacation this time of year, but just three years ago, back in 2018, the day I went on vacation California dropped the California Consumer Privacy Act, seemingly out of thin air. Here's to hoping news developments stay quiet, for the next week or so, at least. With the seismic data transfer developments coming out of the EU in the last few weeks, we could all use a little break from more earth-shattering privacy developments.
Onward and upward!