{"id":2390,"date":"2026-02-22T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/america-desperately-needs-new-privacy-laws\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:00:00","slug":"america-desperately-needs-new-privacy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/america-desperately-needs-new-privacy-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"America desperately needs new privacy laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Eye looking through a window\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: Cath Virginia \/ The Verge, Getty Images\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/268314_Stepback-_The_US_desperately_needs_privacy_rights_CVirginia2.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\" \/><figcaption>\n\t\t<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\"><em>This is <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/the-stepback-newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Stepback<\/a><em>, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the dire state of tech regulation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/authors\/adi-robertson\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/authors\/adi-robertson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">follow Adi Robertson<\/a>. <\/em>The Stepback<em> arrives in our subscribers&rsquo; inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for <\/em>The Stepback<em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-none\">How it started<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In 1973, long before the modern digital era, the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) published a report called \u00ab\u00a0Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens.\u00a0\u00bb Networked computers seemed \u00ab\u00a0destined to become the principal medium for making, storing, and using records about people,\u00a0\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opcl\/docs\/rec-com-rights.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the report&rsquo;s foreword began<\/a>. These systems could be a \u00ab\u00a0powerful management  \u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/882516\/privacy-laws-america\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full story at The Verge.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}