California takes the lead on pro-consumer tech legislation, with new laws on repairability and privacy

But Google’s change of heart isn’t just a matter of doing the right thing. As the Californian company will have observed, the state’s legislature spent the past several months enthusiastically advancing the California Right to Repair Act—and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law yesterday. The new act forces gadget-makers to provide spare parts, tools, and software for their over-$100 products for seven years (it’s three years for items priced between $50 and $99.99.)

The California law goes further than other recent legislation in the same vein that was passed in Minnesota (forcing companies to provide repair guides) and New York State (giving independent repair shops equal access to parts). It was cosponsored by repair service iFixit, along with the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) and Californians Against Waste.

Here’s CALPIRG state director Jenn Engstrom, summing up the real point of the move: “Right now, we mine the planet’s precious minerals, use them to make amazing phones and other electronics, ship these products across the world, and then toss them away after just a few years’ use. What a waste. We should make stuff that lasts and be able to fix our stuff when it breaks, and now thanks to years of advocacy, Californians will finally be able to, with the Right to Repair.” 

Other people will, too, thanks to the fact that California is such a populous, influential, and economically important state—it isn’t just Californian Pixel 8 buyers who will benefit from that seven-year promise. Score one for sustainability, and for the load on smartphone users’ wallets.

Speaking of tech legislation with a global impact, the usual king of such things—the European Union—is way behind California on the right to repair. After pressure from the European Parliament, the European Commission finally proposed new rules on the subject in March, but they’re weak sauce compared with the Californian law. The proposal would force companies to repair big items like TVs and washing machines for five to 10 years after purchase, but mobile phones and tablets would only join the list at some point down the line, owing to other changes that are needed in the EU legal framework. Expect results in a couple years’ time at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Newsom yesterday also signed California’s Delete Act, which gives people in the state an easy way to tell all data brokers at once to delete their personal information from the brokers’ systems—existing Californian legislation, which reflected elements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, already made this possible on a broker-by-broker basis.

The ad industry is predictably peeved, complaining that “absent this data, smaller enterprises will lose a critical path to reach and attract new customers, and consumers overall will have less exposure to new products and services that may interest them.” But State Senator Josh Becker, who introduced the bill, said its passage into law “enshrines California as a leader in consumer privacy.” He has a point—and it’s ahead on repairability, too.

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David Meyer

NEWSWORTHY

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X rejection. Germany’s Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency is closing its X/Twitter account because of surging hate speech on the site. “X is no longer a sustainable environment for a public agency,” it said, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, EU digital enforcer Thierry Breton today set up an account on X rival Bluesky, while telling Elon Musk to urgently tackle illegal disinformation on X regarding the Israel-Hamas war. “Feels less crowded—yet more human—without all those bots,” Breton mused in one of his first Bluesky posts.

ON OUR FEED

“The biggest challenge I’m still thinking of: What are LLMs truly useful for, in terms of helpfulness? Like really making a difference. TBD!”

—Googler Cathy Pearl is among several who have been questioning the effectiveness of generative AI models such as Google’s own Bard, in a recent Discord chat reported on by Bloomberg.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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Twitter/X will now let you restrict replies to verified accounts, by Chris Morris

FTX was a boys’ club. When Caroline Ellison asked Sam Bankman-Fried for equity in the hedge fund she ran, he said ‘it was too complicated,’ by Ben Weiss

Generative AI won’t kill graphic design jobs any more than the invention of cameras eliminated painting, Adobe exec says, by Rachyl Jones

Netflix exec downplays AI: ‘There is not an algorithm in the world to tell you the next thing that’s going to actually connect and resonate with people,’ by Kylie Robison

Google CEO Pichai wrote to founders Page and Brin to decry bad ‘optics’ of search engine deal with Apple when he was in charge of Chrome, by Bloomberg

BEFORE YOU GO

Display, heal thyself. The right to repair is cool and all, but what if phone screens…repaired themselves? To an extent, they soon may, some analysts predict.

As reported by The Register, CCS Insight reckons that by 2028 devices will be rolling out with displays that can heal scratches through the use of nano-coatings that react with the air when damaged. But don’t expect it to cope with full-on fractures.