According to a report by Axios, the Information Technology Industry Council — a Washington trade group that represents major tech companies — is planning to meet in San Francisco on Wednesday to talk consumer privacy online and how to best handle the growing concern surrounding the topic post-Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Members of ITI include such tech giants as Apple, Facebook, Google, Samsung, Amazon, and many others. Though ITI expressed to Axios that it expects representatives from multiple companies across a diverse sampling of industry sectors to attend, it didn't explicitly say which companies would be there.
ITI CEO and president Dean Garfield shared its member companies' thoughts regarding user privacy with Axios, describing their increased awareness of the issue in the current climate:
My experience is that they've always viewed privacy as a foundational principle, but the question of how do you give meaning to it and talk about it in a way that resonates is now something that's more pressing.
Also making the meeting more urgent than ever is Europe's recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of stringent privacy requirements that went into effect last month in order to give individuals control over their personal data and unify data online privacy regulations across the EU. Many people are now calling for similar rules in the US, and the White House is currently exploring options that range from stricter guidelines to full-on legislation.
For more information regarding the meeting, you can check out Axios' newsletter here and the ITI website here.
Thoughts?
What do you think the outcome of this meeting will be? How do you feel companies should tackle user privacy concerns going forward? Share your thoughts in the comments.
