U.S. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee reportedly warned in a speech this week about privacy concerns as technology companies gather consumer data and profit from it.
This, according to Broadbandbreakfast.com, which reported Blackburn’s remarks during a speech to the free market group Free State Foundation in Washington, D.C.
“The framework for federal privacy regulation is emerging as another flashpoint in some conservatives’ political battles with Silicon Valley powerhouses,” according to the website.
“The more data companies extract, the more profitable they are,” the website quoted Blackburn as saying.
“Big tech needs to trust the American consumer to make the wise decision, which means big tech needs to be transparent,” said Blackburn.
Broadbandbreakfast.com also reported that many people in the audience agreed with the idea of more privacy regulations.
“Privacy violations can result in consumer harm in the marketplace, harms which should be ‘identified, analyzed and potentially regulated,'” the website quote Noah Phillips as saying.
Phillips is a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission.
The website also quoted Phillips as saying new privacy laws must allow for “investment and risk-taking.”
Michelle Richardson, director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said Congress needs to rebalance power between companies and consumers.
“People would be shocked to hear how little their personal data is worth,” Broadbandbreakfast.com reported Richardson as saying.
“There are many ways to process data in innovative ways, we should also expect very advanced privacy policies.”
Then there are the technology companies that allegedly tried to manipulate political outcomes.
As The Tennessee Star reported this week, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released a video exposing left-wing bias at Google.
In a series of videos, Google employees discuss the tools they use to try to undermine U.S. Republican President Donald Trump and to prevent his reelection next year.
As reported, a Google software engineer with clout verbally attacked Blackburn last year, calling her “a violent thug” and a “terrorist.”
That employee, Blake Lemoine, also defended censoring Blackburn’s campaign ads on social media as she ran for the U.S. Senate last year.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
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