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The Law and Technology Advancement
The law and technology are always going head-to-head. Technology seems to be advancing at a rate that the law simply cannot keep up with. It has been estimated that the law is at least five years behind developing a technology. Almost all of the technology today is innovative and fast-changing. It has not only been hard for society to keep up, but the government as well. Every time we learn the ends and outs of the newest device then there is a more advanced device coming out soon that will make you forget about the previous one. Though new technologies make life easier in many ways, many issues arise in the legal community in an attempt to keep up. With the fast pace in advancements in technology there needs to be a new system in place to keep up.
The federal government, in my opinion, is the regulators. The regulators have always faced an inescapable dilemma on timing. By the time that a regulation is finally approved, the product or service has changed. They could possibly be acting too early which will end up killing off, or freezing, innovative “business models” with a potential for public good. Acting too late can leave consumers exposed to harm, or allow new monopolies to become entrenched. The federal government sets the standard and then the state and local follow. They should have a special task force in place that closely monitors technology that we currently have today, along with future hardware. This task force should be figuring out all of the ends and outs, the good and the bad, to read between the lines disguised by the makers. There is always room for improvement when it comes to technology which is why every kind of equipment we use today is constantly evolving. For example, the evolution of phones has seen a major change in design and price. We went from only being able to have house phones or the kind of phones that are built into our car, to having this small device that we can simultaneously carry with us everywhere. Not only can we talk on this phone but today we can use it for shopping, recording videos/ pictures, reading books, playing games etc. All of these things require different types of regulations in place to keep up with the versions that are rolled out and to make sure that is safe for the general public. The government needs to roll out a set of regulations that need to be met with every new invention. For example, there needs to be a privacy measure that cannot be breached and set the standards for all upcoming apps involving personal information and data selling. This needs to be understood and concrete so that the state and local government have no problem enforcing it.
Along with being the regulators, the federal government should also try to help innovators try out their ideas. There should be support from them in order to allow new entrants to test out their products, and the potential regulatory implications, in a close dialogue with policymakers. They also commit to changing or adapting regulation in response to new innovations.
The law is forced to play catch up after the fact. Many cases are decided and laws are passed at a rapid pace, and there is no way of knowing how long they will survive. Lawyers are constantly playing catch up because they have no clue what advancement is about to roll out. Our local and state government are the more personable branches, since they are the ones that deal with our town problems, city elections, and neighborly concerns. They are the first ones to hear our problems, and they are the first place where a community can make change by replacing or re-electing officials. The state and local government should open dialogue from consumers/ and or innovators. There should be discussions between the people to talk about improvements and concerns that we have. Public engagement is a key factor in whether the next equipment or software will fly or flunk. If the general public is not interested or agrees with the new advancements then there is not anything new to talk about. The federal government can sometimes be out of touch with reality, so the state and local can come in to relay a more updated opinion. For example, the Congressional hearings of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Many of the Senate and House of Representative members were confused about how Facebook works, particularly with the sale of data. Their lack of knowledge hindered their ability to gain all the information they were looking for. This is just one example of how out of touch our elected representatives are on some of the most basic forms of technology. There can be polls given out either electronically or physically that ask questions and let people write their feedback down. There could also be annual or semi-annual meetings held that further elaborate and give consumers a chance to discuss their concerns about technology. The public might catch something wrong with an invention that the creator purposely ignored.
We need to give everyone a platform to be heard to close this gap, along with making the federal government responsible for keeping up with technology. Whether we like it or not, technology is advancing, and at a faster pace than before. We need to be confident and secure within our society to know that all the devices, apps, hardware, and softwares are in our best interest. There should not be another case of whether we acted too late to keep up with something.