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by mfrommil 3007 days ago
In many cases, industry self-regulation can be a good solution to protecting customers from being wronged. PCI is a great example- there can be huge fines on merchants that don't meet strict regulations for handling customer financial transactions according to the strict standards set by PCI.

What has become extremely clear from this situation is that we are far past the point of self-regulation being the answer for protecting personal data. Facebook knowingly enabled a 3rd party to pay $1-$2 to 300k people to acquire facebook data that may have been marked private/don't share for 50 million users. Roughly $500k for 50 million people's personal data, or in other words, a penny per person. This data is connected to influencing the election of the POTUS. There needs to be significant overhaul of how personal data is protected or this will continue to happen.

3 comments

> In many cases, industry self-regulation can be a good solution to protecting customers from being wronged.

PCI is a self-regulation by self-interest: not to protect the card holders, but merely to protect the card issuers first. Because legislation made issuers responsible for most mishaps in payments.

What are documented examples of industry self-regulation in the interest of customers? (true question, I'm genuinely wondering about it)

The trick is to have customers that aren’t users.
As someone who has worked with PCI compliance, I'm not sure I'd say it's a great example.

Sure, it's better than nothing, but it's also relatively trivial to bypass, and is done so regularly. I think the governing organization should have much sharper teeth.

That's not to say that self-regulating won't work, but I don't think PCI is a great example of it in action.

In addition: You need reasonably trustworthy entities if you want them to self-regulate and self-certify.

Facebook, with their behavior over the years, have lost any benefit of a doubt.

This may not be a popular opinion here, but given their behavior, their evasions and their lies it's time for the law to crack down on them; hard!