Dem bill would jail tech execs for lying about privacy

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of the toughest tech critics in Congress, on Thursday introduced his long-awaited bill that would jail tech executives for lying to the government about privacy violations.

Wyden’s bill, the Mind Your Own Business Act, would also offer users unprecedented control over how their data is used and shared, enabling them to tell websites when they don’t want their online activity to be tracked across the internet.

And the legislation, which Wyden started floating with a discussion draft last year, threatens steep fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for executives at companies that “misuse” data.

The statement about the bill mentioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as an example of a tech executive who could face jail time if found to be lying to the government.

“Mark Zuckerberg won’t take Americans’ privacy seriously unless he feels personal consequences,” Wyden said in a statement. “Under my bill, he’d face jail time for lying to the government.”

Multiple lawmakers have raised concerns that Zuckerberg misled Congress during last year’s series of contentious hearings in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, though Facebook has disputed that.