Major data broker Acxiom publicly backed Tim Cook’s recent call for federeal data privacy legislation. The company said it agreed with the Apple CEO that the U.S. should introduce legislation like the EU’s GDPR. It also said it was engaged with U.S. lawmakers in discussions on consumer transparency.
Support for National Privacy Law
In a statement, Acxiom said it “supports a national privacy law for the US, such as GDPR provides for the European Union,” (via BusinessInsider). Mr. Cook advocated such legislation in an article for Time, published Thursday.
In his article, Mr. Cook called for the introduction of “meaningful, comprehensive federal privacy legislation.” Axiom also said it wanted a single set of policies to be introduced across the U.S. instead of multiple state laws.
Engaged in Data Privacy Discussions
Acxiom did not fully endorse Mr. Cook’s call for a data broker clearinghouse. However, it said that it is “actively participating in discussions with US lawmakers” about data privacy issues. It said it had been voluntarily providing transparency to consumers “for years”.
It also rejected that claim it is part of the “shadow economy” Mr. Cook discussed in its piece. It said: “We agree that we must root out the nefarious players in the ecosystem, and Acxiom’s data privacy impact assessment (DPIA) process ensures we don’t do business with questionable companies.”
The big question is: if a government passes a strict privacy law, will they still want a risky back-door into the devices through which all this private data passes?