OAKLAND, Calif. — The staging ground for one of the biggest regulatory fights facing the technology industry is tucked into an alley next to a wine and cheese shop 30 miles from Silicon Valley.
A real estate office in an upscale Oakland neighborhood is headquarters for backers of a proposed California ballot measure that would provide consumers with increased privacy rights, including the ability to demand that companies do not sell their personal data.
If the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 passes, advocates say, it will be one of the most meaningful checks in the United States on the growing power of Internet behemoths.
“People want some basic rights,’’ said Alastair Mactaggart, 51, a real estate developer who has spent than $2 million of his own money to get the measure off the ground. “People are resentful but accepting because there isn’t any sense of control about their data.’’
The measure would give consumers the right to ask companies to disclose what data they have collected on them; to demand they not sell the data or share it for business purposes; and to sue or fine companies that violate the law.
Google, Facebook, major telecommunications companies, and California’s Chamber of Commerce oppose the initiative, saying it is flawed and a threat to the economic model supporting the Internet. They have created an organization to fight it: the Committee to Protect California Jobs.
Consultants have told the initiative’s backers they should prepare for the opposition to spend $100 million. Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the opposition, declined to put a number on spending but acknowledged a lot is at stake. “It’s California,’’ he said. “It’s expensive.’’
The initiative has not yet been certified for the November election, but it is expected to appear on the ballot. Backers said they have submitted more than 600,000 signatures, eclipsing the 366,000 required.
Mactaggart said he had reached out to Rick Arney, a finance industry executive who had worked in the California Senate 20 years ago. He knew Arney was a supporter of ballot measures as a way for ordinary citizens to get things done.
But neither Mactaggart nor Arney was a privacy expert, so they hired Mary Stone Ross, who worked at the CIA.
Opponents say companies can adopt their own privacy rules more effectively. “Something that takes such a sledgehammer approach to regulating data is extraordinarily concerning,’’ said Robert Callahan, of the Internet Association.
