With more than half a million
dollars from hi-tech companies who are pushing a federal effort to
limit California’s ability to protect consumer privacy, Arnold 2.0
could face an early test of his ability to say no to big donors.
Because California is on the cutting edge of information privacy, any
effort to federalize rules means weaker protections for Californians.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports today,
the companies are "hoping to avoid the passing of more restrictive
[state] privacy laws in an era of growing concern over how companies
use and share consumer data."
Will the "new and improved" Arnold — who has claimed a commitment to
personal privacy issues in the past, but has also vetoed legislation to
boost online privacy & stayed silent on federal pre-emption of
banking privacy rules — fight his tech donors’ effort to keep
California from programming its own privacy rules? Or has all the money
from Hewlett-Packard, eBay, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun
Microsystems (six of the sponsors of the new pre-emption plan) deleted
Arnold’s ability to speak out on consumer privacy protections?
The gov should send a warning message to the Silicon Valley that he’ll
challenge any attempt to take away California’s right to protect
personal privacy… Or we’ll know there’s been no reboot of the
donor-first operating system for Arnold 2.0.
