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I introduced the bill as that.
Its common for industries to lobby lawmakers on issues affecting their business.
Microsoft declined to comment for this story, while Apple and Amazon didnt respond to requests for comment.
Google and Facebook both distanced themselves from the industry groups that they are members of.
Protocol was thefirst to reportthat connection.
The industrys influence over the language didnt stop there.
That neutral expertise, however, was funded largely by the tech industry.
Donors do not set our policy agenda.
There were no representatives from consumer or privacy groups on the committee.
But there wasnt anybody else trying to write anything.
Hawaiis privacy law hasnt seen any activity since February.
In Vermont, TechNeturged lawmakersto learn from more recent experiences in states like Virginia rather than follow Californias approach.
And in Minnesota, the Internet Associationencouraged the legislatureto mirror the Virginia law.
Neither law has made it out of committee since.
In some cases, the representatives of these groups have been presented as neutral subject-matter experts to other lawmakers.
When Colorado began considering a data privacy bill in 2021, tech lobbyists descended on the state.
It was a similar team to those Big Tech has deployed elsewhere.
Colorado governor Jay Polis signed theColorado Privacy Actlast July.
But privacy advocates say the sheer numbers are enough in some cases to overwhelm lawmakers.
That disparity has influenced how key legislators view the publics opinions on privacy.
I think the public is largely indifferent to data privacy things.
Its just an annoyance that a lot of people are willing to put up with.
Privacy groups say they havent been asleep; they just cant fight the multi-state battle Big Tech is waging.
Andpolling suggestsAmericans are concerned about their online privacy; they just dont know what to do about it.
Its been this coordinated national push to advance really weak privacy bills.
Weve definitely felt outnumbered, Lee, from the ACLU of Washington, said.
They have tremendous resources and time to really influence the conversations happening in the legislature.
This article wasoriginally published on The Markupand was republished under theCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivativeslicense.
