Re:Silicon Valley is terrified of California’s privacy law
by BoiledCabbage on Thursday September 19, 2019 @05:03PM
(#21020741)
Assuming that's true, then it's just accounting for social behavior.
A user isn't "paying" for privacy. Privacy comes by default (for a price) and a company can pay a user to harvest their data.
Financially, they both work out the same, but based on opt-in, opt-out behaviors and perception I presume they have a different impact. The wording specified by the law says that users should have a default expectation of privacy. They can actively choose to give that up for a fee.
The business profit loss side of it says, you can't build a business that assumes it gets to profit off harvesting user's data for free. User data has value, place a value on it, and make it an explicit part of the transaction.
For example, I think it would be legal for Verizon to get around this law by increasing their prices by $5 across the board, and offering a $5 rebate for customers who want to opt-in to their data being sold.
But it would not be legal for Verizon to allow customers to opt-out of data collection by paying an extra $5 a month.
In the first approach, Verizon will not track by default and customers have to opt-in.
In the second approach, Verizon will track by default and customers have to opt-out.