Cisco, like Apple and other tech giants, now wants new federal privacy law

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On Thursday, Cisco formally joined the parade of major tech companies that have been calling for a comprehensive federal privacy law that would once and for all set a clear standard for tech companies nationwide.

Currently in the United States, there is a patchwork of laws governing how various types of data are handled-health, financial, etc.-but there isn't a clear set of rules for Silicon Valley giants that traffic in vast amounts of information sharing. As a hardware networking giant, however, Cisco does not profit from user data in the same way that a company like Google or Facebook does.

In a blog post, Cisco's top lawyer, Mark Chandler, called the current legal framework "not adequate." Cisco hasn't put forward specific bill language just yet; it is speaking for now in generalities.

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