Thread by @matthewstoller

Well, this is interesting. Apparently Amazon and Google came out swinging against this Illinois bill saying a company is not allowed to remotely turn on a microphone without the owner’s permission. ilga.gov/legislation/Bi…

Here are the Amazon/Google talking points against the @CastroforIL22 bill barring tech platforms from secretly recording you in your home. Talking points are laundered through the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and tech trade associations.

This is my favorite talking point against the bill barring undisclosed remote activations of microphones by tech platforms.

"The language allows for company terms of services agreements to be void and unenforceable even if a failure to disclose is deemed accidental."

To be fair, what about Google's and Amazon's right to hear every private conversation? It's super uncool to make trillion dollar companies feel left out.

There are definitely interesting questions about how to define who gets to consent. If you're in my home and you are recorded by a microphone I've consented to use, what does that mean? Then again, there are one party consent states for phone recordings, so this is not hard.

Seems like the secret microphone bill was gutted. No private rights of action, no ability to hold a manufacturer liable (even if Google secretly puts a microphone in Nest products). What it seems to require is an additional few paragraphs on an unreadable click-through agreement.