Regardless of whether
major social media firms and tech companies enable these on board AI
capabilities or not, it’s clear to me that we’ve reached a point in the US
social consciousness that tech companies managing all this personal data need
to be regulated. While I’ll be the first to admit that the slow-moving
government regulatory process is ill-matched to the rapidly evolving tech
industry, that’s still not an excuse for not doing anything. As a result, in
2019, I believe the first government regulations of the tech industry will be
put into place, specifically around data privacy and disclosure rules.
It’s clear from the
backlash that companies like Facebook have been receiving that many consumers
are very concerned with how much data has been collected not only about their
online activities, but their location, and many other very specific (and very
private) aspects of their lives. Despite the companies’ claims that we gave
over most all of this information willingly (thanks to the confusingly worded
and never read license agreements), common sense tells us that the vast
majority of us did not understand or know how the data was being analyzed and
used.
Legislators from both
parties recognize these concerns, and despite the highly polarized political
climate, are likely going to easily agree to some kind of limitations on the
type of data that’s collected, how it’s analyzed, and how it’s ultimately used.
Whether the US builds on Europe’s GDPR regulations, the privacy laws instated
in California last year, or something entirely different remains to be seen,
but now that the value and potential impact of personal data has been made
clear, there’s no doubt we will see laws that control the valued commodity that
it is.
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