{"id":216263,"date":"2026-02-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/22\/america-desperately-needs-new-privacy-laws\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T09:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:30:09","slug":"america-desperately-needs-new-privacy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/22\/america-desperately-needs-new-privacy-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"America desperately needs new privacy laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/882516\/privacy-laws-america\">America desperately needs new privacy laws<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/882516\/privacy-laws-america\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/882516\/privacy-laws-america<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-22 08:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.theverge.com\">www.theverge.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the dire state of tech regulation, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers\u2019 inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">In 1973, long before the modern digital era, the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) published a report called \u201cRecords, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens.\u201d Networked computers seemed \u201cdestined to become the principal medium for making, storing, and using records about people,\u201d the report\u2019s foreword began. These systems could be a \u201cpowerful management tool.\u201d But with few legal safeguards, they could erode the basic human right to privacy \u2014 particularly \u201ccontrol by an individual over the uses made of information about him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">These concerns weren\u2019t just cheap talk in Washington. In 1974, Congress passed the Privacy Act, which set some of the first rules aimed at computerized records systems \u2014 limiting when government agencies could share information and outlining what access individuals should have. Over the course of the 20th century, the Privacy Act was joined by more privacy rules for fields including healthcare, websites for children, electronic communications, and even video cassette rentals. But over the past couple of decades, amid an explosion in digital surveillance by governments and private companies, Congress has repeatedly failed to keep up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Lawmakers have weighed numerous plans for preserving Americans\u2019 privacy, yet over and over, they\u2019ve fizzled. Attempts to rein in government spying \u2014 like proposed updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 \u2014 have been sandbagged by fears they\u2019d compromise police and anti-terrorism operations. Despite multiple concerted attempts from members of both parties, Congress hasn\u2019t passed a bill that governs how private companies collect data and what rights people have over their own information&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/882516\/privacy-laws-america\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>America desperately needs new privacy laws https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/882516\/privacy-laws-america Publish Date: 2026-02-22 08:00:00 Source Domain: www.theverge.com This&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/268314_Stepback-_The_US_desperately_needs_privacy_rights_CVirginia2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.732984293194%2C100%2C78.534031413613&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216265,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216263\/revisions\/216265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}