Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has drafted a bill, now gathering support in Albany, that would make it a crime — punishable by a fine to be determined — for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent. The New York Times has an article here that explains the proposed law and how important this issue really is. Already, major corporate dollars are being spent to portray Assemblyman Brodsky’s bill as an election year effort to get votes, but after being in Albany since ’82, New Yorkers know better.  

The story is that new companies are creating really slick methods to follow you around the web, and selling your data to anyone who wants to pay them for it. The problem here is that you won’t even know they are doing it, nor will you benefit from it, with the exception of having ads placed based on your web browsing history.  ISP’s will make a real killing on your click history. They can share your account history based on your clicks. As to who would buy the data besides marketers, experts warn that it would be just a matter of time before the data would be sold for a large profit to heavy hitters. Insurance companies or banks could and would buy this click history, either directly or as part of an optimized data mining program. This is the mother of all Privacy issues.

Click to E-Mail Assemblyman Brodsky and show him your support. Tell him he’s the Privacy Champion and to keep up the good work.