Testimony Before the Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Economic Development/Arts

It is no longer possible to participate in society without providing personal information to private companies and other third parties that may, in and of itself, reveal intimate details of one’s life, or that, when combined with other data and analyzed, may expose such information. The consequences can be profound. Unfortunately, rather than protecting individual privacy in the digital age, Parts Y and AA of the Executive Transportation, Economic Development, and Environmental Conservation (TEDE) Article VII Legislation would undermine anonymous communications on the internet, render vulnerable young people less safe, and give New Yorkers a false sense of security in and control over the personal information they share online. The legislature should omit Parts Y and AA from its one-house budgets and work through the regular legislative process to advance meaningful privacy protections for New Yorkers.