We Need New Privacy Norms ⇥ washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post editorial board:

Legislators must establish expectations of companies that go beyond advising consumers that they will be exploiting their personal information. For some data practices, this might call for wholesale prohibition. For all data practices, a more fundamental change is called for: Companies should be expected and required to act reasonably to prevent harm to their clients. They should exercise a duty of care. The burden no longer should rest with the user to avoid getting stepped on by a giant. Instead, the giants should have to watch where they’re walking.

There are two main reasons this call is being made: antitrust regulators failed to adequately monitor the growth of privacy-averse tech companies, and those companies have zero incentive to be more responsible largely because of their size.