Colorado Bill Aims To Protect Consumer Brain Data (nytimes.com) 15
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Consumers have grown accustomed to the prospect that their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, are being collected and often resold by the apps and the digital services they use. With the advent of consumer neurotechnologies, the data being collected is becoming ever more intimate. One headband serves as a personal meditation coach by monitoring the user's brain activity. Another purports to help treat anxiety and symptoms of depression. Another reads and interprets brain signals while the user scrolls through dating apps, presumably to provide better matches. ("'Listen to your heart' is not enough," the manufacturer says on its website.) The companies behind such technologies have access to the records of the users' brain activity -- the electrical signals underlying our thoughts, feelings and intentions.
On Wednesday, Governor Jared Polis of Colorado signed a bill that, for the first time in the United States, tries to ensure that such data remains truly private. The new law, which passed by a 61-to-1 vote in the Colorado House and a 34-to-0 vote in the Senate, expands the definition of "sensitive data" in the state's current personal privacy law to include biological and "neural data" generated by the brain, the spinal cord and the network of nerves that relays messages throughout the body. "Everything that we are is within our mind," said Jared Genser, general counsel and co-founder of the Neurorights Foundation, a science group that advocated the bill's passage. "What we think and feel, and the ability to decode that from the human brain, couldn't be any more intrusive or personal to us." "We are really excited to have an actual bill signed into law that will protect people's biological and neurological data," said Representative Cathy Kipp, Democrat of Colorado, who introduced the bill.
On Wednesday, Governor Jared Polis of Colorado signed a bill that, for the first time in the United States, tries to ensure that such data remains truly private. The new law, which passed by a 61-to-1 vote in the Colorado House and a 34-to-0 vote in the Senate, expands the definition of "sensitive data" in the state's current personal privacy law to include biological and "neural data" generated by the brain, the spinal cord and the network of nerves that relays messages throughout the body. "Everything that we are is within our mind," said Jared Genser, general counsel and co-founder of the Neurorights Foundation, a science group that advocated the bill's passage. "What we think and feel, and the ability to decode that from the human brain, couldn't be any more intrusive or personal to us." "We are really excited to have an actual bill signed into law that will protect people's biological and neurological data," said Representative Cathy Kipp, Democrat of Colorado, who introduced the bill.
Consumers have brains? (Score:2)
the Tinted One tries it: (Score:2)
Error: no content found
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Do not stare long into an abyss ....
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nor the sun [s-nbcnews.com]
Please don't (Score:2)
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But it's not reading your thoughts.
There is a branch of neuroscience (and criminal forensics) that can detect brain patterns involved with recognition. Your brain responds differently if you are shown a picture of something you know.
Forensics (although with no more standing than lie detectors) uses this by hooking people up to a scanner and putting images of a crime scene, weapon or that cute, dead co-ed in front of you.
If the ploy is to put the band on your head and then show a picture or play a sound for you, you might not recognize the
Its a start, but not enough. (Score:5, Insightful)
This protection should extend to ALL biometric and health related data, including medications or anything else protected by doctor patient info.
There should be no way that this information should EVER be bought or sold without EXPRESS CONSENT ever.
The question is how long will it take before we elect leadership that is capable of doing the job of representing people, not payola.
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This protection should extend to ALL biometric and health related data, including medications or anything else protected by doctor patient info.
There should be no way that this information should EVER be bought or sold without EXPRESS CONSENT ever.
The question is how long will it take before we elect leadership that is capable of doing the job of representing people, not payola.
The answer is: never. It can't be done under the current system. It would require lawmakers at all levels to turn their backs on their own financial upward trajectory in order to reform the system in a way that was beneficial to the people. And I don't know a single politician even at the local level that would be willing to do that. Even the ones that start out meaning well get a taste of the corruption and turn their backs on the people that elected them. Which, for some strange reason in this country, us
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This protection should extend to ALL biometric and health related data, including medications or anything else protected by doctor patient info.
There should be no way that this information should EVER be bought or sold without EXPRESS CONSENT ever.
Good points.
The question is how long will it take before we elect leadership that is capable of doing the job of representing people, not payola.
Unfortunately the system wasn't designed for this, however, it still works better than others.
Should have been hard... (Score:2)
Another reads and interprets brain signals while the user scrolls through dating apps, presumably to provide better matches. ("'Listen to your heart' is not enough," the manufacturer says on its website.)
If you're using dating apps you want to be listening to your hard. Your heart only gets involved later in the process, if at all.
Also, if you need external analysis of your brain signals to recognize who's most attractive to you, you're probably beyond help of any kind.
please, explain to me my own thoughts (Score:1)
If they can explain my brain data to me, they are welcome to it as long as they give me that information for free and the data is anonymized when sold. I wonder if they can get names and addresses from the raw data. I doubt it and I hope not after my first statement.
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Anonymizing data basically doesn't work. With enough anonymized data, it's possible to reconstruct the identity of individuals.
https://www.scientificamerican... [scientificamerican.com]