January 19, 2022
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Opinion: Virginia must adopt a stronger data privacy law - The Virginian-Pilot

This March 26, 2018, file photo shows a computer with Facebook ad preferences pages in San Francisco. California's Proposition 24, adopted by voters in 2020, expanded the state's consumer privacy law by tripling penalties for companies that break laws regarding the collection and sale of children's private information and created a state agency to enforce consumer privacy protections. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
This March 26, 2018, file photo shows a computer with Facebook ad preferences pages in San Francisco. California's Proposition 24, adopted by voters in 2020, expanded the state's consumer privacy law by tripling penalties for companies that break laws regarding the collection and sale of children's private information and created a state agency to enforce consumer privacy protections. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) (Jeff Chiu/AP)
Thomas Morris is a Norfolk resident and a human factors psychology Ph.D. student at Old Dominion University.
Thomas Morris is a Norfolk resident and a human factors psychology Ph.D. student at Old Dominion University. (HANDOUT)

Many people understand that as they browse the internet their personal data is being recorded by the website that they are visiting, but people are often unaware that this data is shared, bought and sold to various other companies without their knowledge or consent. Sometimes this data will be used to better target advertisements, but it can also be used by researchers and insurance companies and could even fall into the hands of identity thieves.

Your personal data can be used to determine your whereabouts, relationships and many other sensitive details. As technology advances, it is crucial that consumers are granted rights over their personal data. The recently passed Virginia data privacy law does not go far enough to ensure this. Like California has done, Virginia should amend the state data privacy law to better reflect the rights that consumers expect to have when sharing their personal data with companies.



source: https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/vp-ed-column-morris-0120-20220119-xwwrjkk25zcv5akqzeggzmvrem-story.html

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