League of Women Voters Opposes Prop 24

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The non-partisan League of Women Voters of California opposes Proposition 24, the so-called "privacy" initiative on the November ballot.

The non-partisan group conducts an independent review of ballot propositions and determines its stands "based on current program positions and/or on League principles."

In its thorough analysis of Proposition 24, the League states: "Prop 24 includes some beneficial elements, but we oppose due to the complexity of a 52-page initiative with impacts and nuances that are difficult for voters to discern and rollbacks to existing protections. Among the troubling aspects of Prop 24 is its expansion of "pay for privacy" through the addition of loyalty and rewards programs, allowing businesses to charge consumers more or provide worse service if they choose to exercise their privacy rights. The initiative also allows businesses to require consumers to direct each individual website and app not to sell information - weakening the current legal requirement that companies respect a global opt-out for all services. These burdens are fundamentally inequitable, placing the onus on the average consumer to protect their own privacy. Working people don't have the time to do the paperwork and they can't afford to pay companies to respect their wishes."

The League's review itemizes several concerns with Prop 24. These include:

• Prop 24 expands Pay for Privacy schemes.
• Opt-out instead of Opt-in. Prop 24 puts the burden on consumers to opt-out of the retention and sale of their information.
• Opting out is more difficult. Prop 24 would place an exhausting burden on consumers to notify every online business, website, and app to preserve their privacy.
• Inequitable. Prop 24 will disproportionately harm vulnerable communities, like the poor and elderly.
• Prop 24 impedes minimization of data collection. It allows business to collect consumer information according to the business' view of what data is needed to accomplish its commercial purposes.
• Prop 24 weakens biometric data protections, enabling more collection of facial recognition and DNA data by businesses.
• Prop 24 exposes information on social media to data mining by businesses that aggregate and sell personal information to third parties.
• Prop 24 makes it more difficult to delete personal data.
• Prop 24 limits privacy rights to California. Personal data stored on phones and electronic devices can be collected and used by a business when a consumer travels outside of California with the device.

The League of Women Voters' analysis of Prop 24 is available at: https://lwvc.org/vote/elections/ballot-recommendations/prop-24consumer-data-privacy

Other Prop 24 opponents include the ACLU of California, California Alliance for Retired Americans, Consumer Federation of California, TURN – The Utility Reform Network, Public Citizen, labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, Color of Change, Black Lives Matter LA, California Nurses Association, Consumer Action and many other privacy, consumer, labor and social change organizations. 25 newspaper editorials recommend that readers vote No on Prop 24, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Bakersfield Sun, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, the Riverside Enterprise, the Bakersfield Californian, the Orange County Register and many others.

Learn more at www.prop24no.org

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SOURCE Californians for Real Privacy - No on Proposition 24