Protecting your online privacy is way too hard. A proposed California law would give you a privacy fairy godmother to handle the dirty work.
If the governor signs the law by a Sept. 30 deadline, you’d be able to click a box in any web browser or in your phone’s settings to command companies not to blab your personal information.
States around the country are laboratories for how to give you meaningful power over your data. The proposed addition to California’s existing privacy laws isn’t perfect, but it is an intriguing model for simple, legally binding privacy controls.
I’ll explain how the California measure could work for state residents and many other Americans — and how to try a privacy fairy godmother right now.
A one-click box to flex your privacy powers
Without your true consent, when you buy a banana, brake hard in your car, download a fitness app or read news online, the company might pass on data about you to other businesses.
These personal information slurries might be used to estimate your income, political preferences, religion, health habits and more to pitch you products, send you political messages or set car insurance rates.
Privacy laws in some states, notably California, give people the right to tell most businesses not to sell or share information they collect or in some cases to delete data about you. Some companies apply California’s privacy protections to everyone.
To take advantage of those privacy rights, though, you often must fill out complicated forms with dozens of companies. Hardly anyone does. The opt-out rights give you power in principle, but not in practice.
But baked into some state privacy laws is the option to enlist someone else to handle the legwork for you.
That wand-wielding privacy fairy godmother can be Consumer Reports, whose app can help you opt out of companies saving and selling your data. Even better, the godmother could just be a checkbox you click once to order every company to keep your data secret.
This has been an option in a few privacy-conscious but little used web browsers like Firefox, Brave and DuckDuckGo. Few people noticed.
The proposed law that passed California’s legislature last week is a serious step up. It’s essentially a legal mandate on Google and Apple — which own the dominant web browsers and smartphone systems — to provide the one-click privacy option to millions more people.
Google and Apple haven’t publicly commented about the proposed California law.
Matt Schwartz, a policy analyst for Consumer Reports, said the measure would make it much easier for people to use the privacy powers they already have.
“It will ideally take it from a situation where a small minority of people are using their opt-out rights under California law to potentially millions or tens of millions,” said Schwartz, whose nonprofit is among the consumer advocacy groups pushing for the measure known as AB 3048.
Try a privacy fairy godmother right now
If you use the Firefox web browser, go to Settings → Privacy & Security → and click the box that says “Tell websites not to sell or share my data.”
The Brave browser automatically tells websites not to sell or share your data. So does Privacy Badger, software you can download from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that works with Google Chrome, Firefox or the Microsoft Edge browser.
If you choose one of those options, your order not to sell or share your data is legally binding or will be soon in at least nine states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas and Montana.
In California, the attorney general and privacy watchdog, the California Privacy Protection Agency, can verify businesses are complying or sue.
The new California legislation would require those opt-out options in all browsers and in iPhones and Android phones. If you’re tired of privacy cookie pop-up notices online, California’s proposed measure could be a one-time decision and you’re done.
The California Chamber of Commerce, a business advocacy group, opposes the bill and says it’s too complicated and could confuse businesses.
A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the bill “will be evaluated on its merits.”
Ashkan Soltani, executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, said he hopes the measure could be a model for simple privacy controls in other states and countries. (Soltani previously worked with The Washington Post on investigative articles.)
Soltani, who has decades of technology experience, believes smart regulation is essential for innovation. He said car safety and environmental regulations spurred useful technologies, including air bags and more efficient cars.
Soltani believes usable privacy protections can similarly jump start new internet ideas.
“This is a prime example of that sweet spot of technical innovation and policy innovation,” Soltani said.