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Prop B ensures a city-wide privacy policy
Published on 10/12/18, 10:00 AM
This would empower SF to establish guidelines for protecting our personal information.
What did Facebook do now?
Ha. Well, Prop B is largely a reaction to recent reports of data breaches and user privacy concerns at tech companies, like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Equifax data breach. But given Facebook’s most recent data breach of over 50 Million accounts, Prop B’s proposal to rewrite the City’s user privacy guidelines has become especially timely.
In short, Prop B would establish privacy guidelines to govern how City Hall, SF companies, and SF government contractors can collect, store, share, and use our personal information (“PI”).
Just to name a few guidelines, Prop B would:
In short, Prop B would establish privacy guidelines to govern how City Hall, SF companies, and SF government contractors can collect, store, share, and use our personal information (“PI”).
Just to name a few guidelines, Prop B would:
- Require companies to inform us of their data policies
- Solicit consent for the collection and storage of PI
- Allow users to access collected data
- Discourage the collection of demographic data (e.g. race, religion, sexual orientation)
- Establish processes for government agencies requesting PI
- Allow people to move and organize throughout the City without being tracked without their consent
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So it's like the EU’s GDPR?
Totes. Prop B is modeled, in part, on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and in California. Both policies established new standards and protections for individuals’ PI so users know what data is being collected about them and how they can request to delete it. SF’s proposed policy would not only provide more data protections for residents, but because SF is the City of Tech, any policy that affects businesses in the city could have a national and global impact.
What are the drawbacks?
Opponents say some large tech companies may think about moving out of SF in order to avoid being subject to such data regulations, which could negatively impact the local economy. Other critics of Prop B, including the SF Chronicle, Examiner, the Society of Professional Journalists, and other media organizations, strongly oppose Prop B because they argue it will empower the BoS to tamper with SF’s Sunshine Ordinance, which ensures easy access to public records and mandates many City Hall meetings be openly conducted.
At issue is a provision in Prop B that grants the BoS the power “to amend voter-approved ordinances regarding privacy, open meetings, or public records, provided that any such amendment is not inconsistent with the purpose or intent of the voter-approved ordinance [Prop B].”
Prop B supporters point to the Controller's office report, which says Prop B's amendment would not be allowed to be implemented in a way that conflicts with voter-approved ordinances, like the Sunshine Ordinance, when it comes to public records, open meetings, and privacy.
At issue is a provision in Prop B that grants the BoS the power “to amend voter-approved ordinances regarding privacy, open meetings, or public records, provided that any such amendment is not inconsistent with the purpose or intent of the voter-approved ordinance [Prop B].”
Prop B supporters point to the Controller's office report, which says Prop B's amendment would not be allowed to be implemented in a way that conflicts with voter-approved ordinances, like the Sunshine Ordinance, when it comes to public records, open meetings, and privacy.
More reading
No on Prop B
SF Chronicle Editorial Board
SF Examiner
SF Bay Guardian
Northern California Society of Professional Journalists
Pacific Media Workers Guild
First Amendment Coalition
SPUR
SF Chamber of Commerce
Op-ed: Proposition B’s poison pill
Op-ed: Prop. B would let supervisors tamper with open-meeting & public-records laws
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Pretty much all rights reserved © By The Bay 2018
Pretty much all rights reserved © By The Bay 2018