Obama’s new plan for data collection

BRIANNA HARRINGTON
BUSINESS EDITOR
@BNH1995

The policy on data collection and privacy laws may be changing shortly. In response to Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, being hacked, the Obama administration has decided to try to bolster privacy laws.

Although this new push is in response to the hacking of a large company, they will not be the only ones affected by any new bills or laws.

Sophomore Andrea Mast had a positive reaction to this news.

“I feel like this should have been addressed a while ago,” Mast said. “But it is good that Obama is doing it now. Better late than never.”

Mast also feels that this will have no problem gaining bipartisan support.

“People value their privacy enough to make this work.” Mast said.

Along with protection from further hacking, the Obama administration has decided to crack down on discriminatory pricing and protect data collected through educational apps.

Obama’s top advisors have allied with the Republican Party for a bill to protect the data collected from educational apps.

The Obama administration is also redoubling efforts to push for broader measures to safeguard consumer privacy.
Along with these measures are others that have yet to receive full bipartisan support, including: a bill to give Americans more control over how their information is collected and used, and a measure to require that consumers be notified within 30 days of a breach that compromises their data.

Differential pricing is another problem that they are working on minimizing.

A report on differential pricing said that the rise of data analysis and of companies collecting vast amounts of personal data on customers increases the risk that certain characteristics, like sex, race, and religion, could drive how prices are set.

The Council of Economic Advisers said they would scrutinize companies’ use of personal data to charge different consumers different prices.

According to the New York Times, Obama is seeking $14 billion to support his cyber security efforts across the United States government. He plans on putting this funding toward anti-hacking efforts.

The plan to prevent hacking and compromised data is to introduce more intrusion detection and prevention capabilities, a greater sharing of data with private sectors and other countries, and funding to strengthen the government’s ability to respond to attacks.