The United States government has found a way to access this consumer information while not being subject to the requirements of the data privacy regulations specifically designed to avoid such collection as this. One, the privacy regulations apply to companies that meet certain criteria, and the government and government contractors were probably conducting business with companies that fell outside of these criteria. See id. For example, the CPRA applies to for-profit organizations that generate over $25 million annually, trade data of 100,000 or more consumers, and derive 50% or more of their annual revenue from trade of consumer data.

Why is this a link to a news story instead of the relevant statutory provision? Hearsay is not better than the law. You discuss CCPA rather a lot, but you never actually direct the reader to the statute. We have no reason to believe you've actually read it, as opposed to some news stories. What's going on?

To avoid the companies who would be subject to regulations like the CPRA, these government organizations and associates need only coordinate with the businesses just outside of these parameters. For instance, the government gleans consumer data from “tiny, obscure data brokers,” with “very little public-facing presence and almost no direct consumer relationship. Some of these companies focus on consumer data.”

Closing the Gap

For current and upcoming consumer data privacy regulations to improve upon their goal of protecting consumer data and increasing transparency about where consumer data is going, future amendments and regulations should adjust the criteria for qualification under the privacy regulations and should make efforts to increase repercussions for those who violate privacy regulations. On the former point, the current revenue requirement should be lowered to include more businesses than it does at present. Considering the government is currently buying data from “tiny” data brokers, a smaller revenue requirement could help to include some of these parties. Alternatively, the number of residents whose data is bought, received, or sold could be reduced for the same purpose. Including for-profit businesses that receive even 10,000 residents’ personal information, instead of the current 100,000, could be included and help to reduce the degree to which the government is able to quietly access this information.

Also, moving to a system where enforcement is more extreme and the repercussions are more serious for companies that violate would serve as a deterrent for businesses and entities seeking means to get around the privacy regulations. Even if the companies are using existing loopholes that are not strictly impermissible, “preventing the misuse of biometric information is a high priority for the FTC” and knowledge that the agency is “closely monitoring this sector” would certainly deter bad actors. If prohibition of the use of customer data proves ineffective, additional and severe fines would serve the same purpose and protect the consumer data. This could, at the very least, reduce the number of people whose consumer data and private information is caught up in the share and sale data market.

You need to get the next draft under 1,000 words. You don't need all the bot-like background information. Your idea is that state privacy regulation doesn't effectively prevent federal government acquisition of available consumer data, This idea is largely correct, but beyond reiteration of the danger to "privacy" from "surveillance," there's not much more for the reader to gain by close reading.

Let's try a draft that uses links rather than scattering URLs in the text, that provides higher-value references for the reader (to actual statutes, for example, rather than to"web content" about law), and that offers specific technical and social phenomena that the reader can learn about while also learning what, from your point of view, they mean. Perhaps we can gain insight into how a regulatory system comprehensive enough to effect the environmental harms you describe could work, and how the politics of enacting it might be arranged. Any one of those would probably be a route to significant improvement over the current draft.

Evasive Maneuvers --- How Privacy Regulations Can Cover Government Actors in the Future

-- By MorganC - 05 Mar 2024

The Current Privacy Landscape

In the time that has passed since the passing of the CCPA (now California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)), businesses have worked to comply with the obligations imposed, and it seems that more and more legislation aiming to protect consumer data will emerge in the coming years. But the successful implementation of these state privacy regulations has enabled a far more dangerous and pervasive form of data collection, share, and sale of consumer data. It was recently revealed that the United States government has been “buying up reams of consumer data — information scraped from cellphones, social media profiles, internet ad exchanges and other open sources — and deploying it for often-clandestine purposes like law enforcement and national security in the U.S. and abroad.” The digital footprint that any American citizen has, “[t]he places you go, the websites you visit, the opinions you post — all collected and legally sold to federal agencies.” Id.

How Government Evades Privacy Regulations

Closing the Gap