Newswise — Consumers in West Virginia and nationally are concerned about their digital data privacy, and there are few and often inconsistent laws to protect them—these are the findings of new research funded by the Center for Consumer Law and Education, a joint program between the West Virginia UniversityCollege of Law and Marshall University.
WVU law professor Jena Martin is the author of “Data Privacy Issues in West Virginia and Beyond,”which is available online at SSRN. Martin has also adapted her paper for an article on the West Virginia Law Review Online that focuses primarily on how these issues affect West Virginians.
As a result of Martin’s research, the CCLE is calling for new data privacy laws that include:
treating data as a property right that applies to individual consumers and considering all the actors involved in potentially violating data privacy, including big tech and lesser-known data brokers.
making privacy issues easy to understand for consumers so they can make more informed decisions
letting consumers have a voice in how the law that will affect them is shaped by convening hearings that are specifically focused on the consumer’s experience.