my county wants to know what i order and where and to whom in a data mining ordinance
(www.flcourier.com)https://www.flcourier.com/news/florida/proposed-miami-dade-county-ordinance-threatens-food-apps-customer-privacy/article_48fb0a38-269a-11ee-a960-93edab81d6e9.htmlThe pursuit of political capital typically begins in earnest—legislators act on an idea they believe will improve the quality of life for citizens they serve. However, making laws is rapidly inundated with personal ideals, unnecessary opinions, and intrusions of well-heeled outside interests working only to benefit their bottom line.
This is especially true as new technologies revolutionize marketplaces. Yet, many often forget that while guidelines are necessary to navigating uncharted economic waters, lawmakers should only proceed with only full awareness of potentially negative consequences that could disproportionally impact Black people and other communities of color.
Such is the case with a new proposal being considered by the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners.
Targeting new, app-based platforms offering accessible food options and secondary income streams for thousands of Miami Dade residents, the proposal would require these platforms to collect and share private personal account information—putting all users' data at risk.
The proposed bill would require companies like Grubhub and DoorDash to share “contact information” with restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores for each transaction on the app.
While the details of what constitutes “contact information” aren’t specified, it likely includes delivery addresses, phone numbers, and emails— at a minimum. New regulations would also effectively require platforms to disclose commissions and payments received by partner restaurants and third-party app employees.
The data-sharing requirements contained in the proposal undermine prevailing trends in privacy law that place more control over personal information in the hands of the individual. Privacy laws generally provide individuals with the right to know what information businesses store, control when it is disclosed or sold, and ask that it be deleted.
In contrast to those rights, this bill mandates the disclosure of personal information to private businesses regardless of a customer’s preference, and fails to even provide an opt-out to allow the customer to exercise control over how their information is shared. In essence, the law compels companies to disclose information they would not otherwise share.
This bill is a carbon copy of legislation being pushed by the Digital Restaurant Association (DRA) – an organization with close ties to Travis Kalanick. Kalanick is the former founder of Uber, and he was ousted after his tenure was plagued by a series of privacy scandals, discrimination complaints, and allegations of sexual misconduct.
Kalanick’s proclivity to harvest sensitive information about individuals was well documented during his tenure at Uber. In 2017, the New York Times reported that Uber employees were using an app called Greyball to operate in places where service was deemed illegal—essentially sidestepping the authorities and the law.
He regularly abused Apple’s privacy rules—"fingerprinting” users to identify their accounts and “geofencing” locations to digitally identify reviewers of Uber’s software. In 2014, when a woman was raped by an Uber driver, Kalanick’s executives met with Delhi police and obtained the accuser’s medical records—a clear violation of privacy law.
