DASHBOARD Act plans to give data control back to US consumers

By Emmanuel Legrand

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) have introduced in the US Senate the Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broader Oversight and Regulations on Data (DASHBOARD) Act that will require digital platforms to disclose to consumers how their data is used, whose third parties it is being shared with, and how much is their data worth to the platform.

  Both Warner and Hawley are pushing for tech giants to be regulated. Hawley has recently introduced a bill that would remove Big Tech’s immunity from liability for users’ content on their platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

  “When a big tech company says its product is free, consumers are the ones being sold,” said Sen. Hawley. "These 'free' products track everything we do so tech companies can sell our information to the highest bidder and use it to target us with creepy ads. Even worse, tech companies do their best to hide how much consumer data is worth and to whom it is sold. This bipartisan legislation gives consumers control of their data and will show them how much these 'free' services actually cost.”

Calculating data value

  The legislation would apply to commercial data operators that reach over 100 million monthly users, in particular companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, among others. Commercial data operators will have the obligation to to file an annual report on the aggregate value of user data they’ve collected and disclosed all the contracts they have with third parties involving data collection. Users should have the opportunity to delete all, or individual fields, of data collected by commercial data operators.

  The DASHBOARD Act would also give the task to the Securities and Exchange Commission to “develop methodologies for calculating data value, while encouraging the agency to facilitate flexibility to enable businesses to adopt methodologies that reflect the different uses, sectors, and business models.”

  "These companies take enormous, enormous amounts of data about us... If you're an avid Facebook user, chances are Facebook knows more about you than the U.S. government knows about you. People don't realise one, how much data is being collected; and two, they don't realise how much that data is worth," said Sen. Warner on 'Axios on HBO'.

Resistance from tech companies

  There are no indications at this stage if the bill will be reviewed by a Senate committee or if the Act will be voted on the floor in the near future. However, the current climate on the Hill has changed since the Obama administration, with an increasing number of members of Congress being vocal about regulating Big Tech. 

  The tech sector, individually or through its lobbying arm, the Internet Association, has been resisting attempts to be regulated, aside from Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has been asking for "a common legal framework" for tech companies to operate under.

  A Facebook spokesperson commented: “We look forward to continuing our ongoing conversations with the bill’s sponsors."