Senator's Bill Proposes Label on Products With Cameras, Mics

Increasingly, devices are shipping with cameras and microphones as standard and require an internet connection to function, we know them as smart devices. It's not always easy to tell which products are watching and listening to you, but a new bill aims to clear up any such confusion for consumers.

As Ars Technica reports, the bill is called the Protecting Privacy in our Homes Act and it has been proposed by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo). The legislation is quite a simple, yet effective means of offering clarity. Any internet-connected device which includes cameras or microphones would be required to carry a label stating as much.

When Gardner introduced the bill to the Senate he said, "Consumers face a number of challenges when it comes to their privacy, but they shouldn't have a challenge figuring out if a device they buy has a camera or microphone embedded into it ... This legislation is about consumer information, consumer empowerment, and making sure we're doing everything we can to protect consumer privacy."

It's hard to argue against Gardner's proposal. A label on packaging or next to an online store listing telling consumers if a product contains cameras and microphones is a very easy and cheap way of conveying the information. I'd actually take it a step further and have the label also state if the cameras and microphones can be disabled by the user. That would certainly encourage the companies selling these products to offer more user control as none of them would want "can't be disabled" written on a label attached to their devices. It would also avoid non-disclosures, wouldn't it Google?

Unfortunately, it doesn't look as though Gardner's bill has much chance of becoming a law. GovTrack currently gives it a three percent chance of being enacted.

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