Americans are used to hearing about what a outstanding state they live in — how lucky they are to have been born in , or to have immigrated to , the United States . “ American exceptionalism”—a idiom , queerly enough , mint by Joseph Stalin — is an estimate that , on the whole , is still embed in the state ’s collective identity . But even if Americans ’ trademark optimism amid the post - war boom and in the years after the Great pomposity befit a Carry Amelia Moore Nation singularly flush with chance and riches — at least , for its white citizens — the theme that America is “ especial ” today , in the right sense , is well interpret as a Pollyanna mindset rather than an honest reflection of its status on the world degree . Of the many dozens of so - call “ developed ” countries , America has the dubious laurels ofleadingin metrics such as gun - related homicide , CEO compensation , military spending , healthcare expenses , fleshiness charge per unit , childhood poorness , and a per capita incarceration pace — not to mention an overall telephone number of jail citizens — to name a few .
Thanks in large part to lobbying rules ably identify as “ decriminalise bribery , ” and its preference for picking empty - shirted loaf - abouts to fill seats in Congress , there is another metric by which America has of belated surpass : The close - constant surveillance of its own citizen by virtually any walk wad - of - Johnny Cash so disposed . Beyond the most famous exercise set by Europe , a slew of high - to - upper - midway income countries including Portugal , Canada , Australia , and Brazil have passed nationwide laws aimed at shielding their people from precisely the kind of rampant data revilement that today underpins a not - so - insignificant chunk of the American economy . Some countries whose residents already enjoy the protection offered by Europe’sGDPReven have their own internal privacy law and the big businessman to take one-sided action against collective malefactors — which , by foreign coincidence surely , always seem to be U.S.-based .
On the other paw , the U.S. federal agency at least abstractly tax with protecting Americans ’ privacy , the Federal Trade Commission , also happens to be the one most routinely referred to as “ toothless . ” The rationality for why it is so thusly maligned are varied : It has a concealment - enforcement staffno biggerthan an MLB baseball game team ; an annual budget tantamount to that of a Midwestern state capitol ; and its power to financially “ punish ” ( to get hyperbolic ) multibillion - dollar corporations for even the most blatant bit of magic trick expect first anact of recidivism . That sound out , the only validation of its shortcomings one really needs is a rudimentary clench of the status quo : rampant , nonconsensual collection of people ’s personal data by party who in public admit to doing so because , in the end , that ’s the best way to pull the other caller , governing office , and private mortal who might have an interest group in buying it .
Photo: Jenny Kane (AP)
While in twelvemonth past there have been repeated call to erect a Modern bureaucracy to protect consumers , some notable effectual experts have argue the FTC is already equipped , at least on theme , to dissuade privacy violator — should Congress ever decide to adequately fund and man the agency . Three university professor of information privacy lawarguedin photographic print two years ago that : “ In possibility , the FTC has a broad enough jurisdiction and charge to treat divers progeny often mark as ‘ privacy , ’ such as algorithmic manipulation and accountability . ” Very of late it accept military action against a San Francisco - base picture storage company that deceived its own users ( learn : lied ) by using their photos as fuel for a facial recognition algorithm . Not only was the fellowship consecrate to delete its ill - nonplus data , the algorithm built upon it was also ordered destroyed .
Not everyone agrees with these honored experts . Not a calendar week subsequently , the former theatre director of the FTC ’s consumer protection bureauwrotefor the New York Times : “ [ I]n fact , the F.T.C. lacks both the sound authority and resources to be full effective in this area . ” Attempts to pass comprehensive privacy legislation that would really outfit the agency have been all ignored by both Democratic and Republican loss leader , who notably , in the wake of theinfamous Equifax severance of 2017 , in which some145 million peoplewere compromise , held a serial publication of public hearings lecture a group of limp executive on television set before keep to do absolutely nothing useful .
On Thursday , a coalition of more than 50 civil and pro - privacy right organization released anopen letterasking the FTC to take action against what they deem “ manufacture - wide data ill-usage , ” hoisting up Amazon — a individual surveillance company that also sells books and other goods online — as their primary perpetrator . It is “ not potential , ” they write , for Amazon , Earth ’s largest on-line retail merchant , “ to garner meaningful consent ” from the multitude whose data it collects on a monumental scale , “ as people ca n’t have a go at it or judge the far - strive future harms ” of that assemblage . “ what is more , Amazon ’s power forces user with no bargaining power to accept burdensome and obnoxious terms of use , such as cede Amazon the right to use data taken from their secret life sentence for biometric information and AI training . ”
Among other actions , the groups requested the FTC pursue an straight-out proscription on facial identification applied science — such as the variety sold by a little - known company called Clearview AI , which has boasted of scraping billions of images of people off social medium without their consent and handed low - level street bull the ability to search its databasefrom personal mobile deviceswithout the knowledge of their superior . Because the people whose privacy Clearview violated were n’t actually Clearview customers , there ’s doubt the FTC ’s purview even extends to such crying act of buccaneering .
In December , FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra kicked off aspeechbefore a practical bunch at privacy assembly host online due to covid-19 , “ I ’ll start out by enjoin that I believe the current state of facial recognition is blemished and severe , ” add up : “ I support the actions take by many cities in the United States that have constitute straight-out bans and moratoria . ” Chopra would after need : “ Are we going to earmark brawny technology firm to experiment on us without regard to intrusion of privacy and harmful discrimination ? ”
The answer is decidedly , “ maybe . ”
Reached by Gizmodo on Thursday , the FTC worsen to say whether it supported a ban against facial identification or whether it would even consider one . Asked whether it believed it even had the authority to do so , a spokesperson replied , “ We do n’t have any comment . ” So while authority in other land are busy taking aggressive step to guard their data against corporate vampires , Americans are for now left to enquire whether they ’ll be saddled with their own exceptionality yet again , drained of any semblance of self - possession thanks to a feckless governing too lame and corrupt to protect them .
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