Two key U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday they struck a deal on draft bipartisan data privacy legislation that would restrict consumer data that technology companies can collect and give Americans the power to prevent selling of personal information or compel its deletion.
\nThe agreement between Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Commerce Committee, and Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would give individuals control over use of their personal information and require disclosure if data has been transferred to foreign adversaries.
\nCongress has been debating online privacy protections since at least 2019 amid concerns about use of data by social media companies including Meta Platforms\u2019 META.O Facebook, Alphabet\u2019s GOOGL.O Google and ByteDance-owned TikTok, but have been unable to reach agreement.
\nAides told reporters on Sunday they hoped to advance legislation soon.
\nMeta, TikTok and Google could not immediately be reached for comment.
\nIn a joint statement, the lawmakers said the plan gives the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general broad authority to oversee consumer privacy issues and establish \u201crobust enforcement mechanisms to hold violators accountable, including a private right of action for individuals.\u201d
\nThe bill does not ban targeted advertising but gives consumers the ability to opt out of it. The FTC would create a new bureau focused on privacy and could issue fines for privacy violations which would also cover telecommunications companies.
\nIn 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine to resolve an FTC probe into its privacy practices, triggered by allegations Facebook violated a 2012 consent decree. The FTC now wants to tighten that existing privacy settlement to ban profiting from minors\u2019 data and expand curbs on facial-recognition technology.
\nIn 2021, ByteDance agreed to a $92 million class-action settlement regarding data privacy claims from some U.S. TikTok users. Reuters reported last month that the FTC could soon resolve its investigation into TikTok over allegedly faulty privacy and data security practices.
\nGoogle and its YouTube unit in 2019 paid $170 million in a settlement with the FTC and New York to resolve allegations it broke federal law by collecting personal information about children.
\nU.S. lawmakers Cantwell and Rodgers added: \u201cThis bipartisan, bicameral draft legislation is the best opportunity we\u2019ve had in decades to establish a national data privacy and security standard that gives people the right to control their personal information.\u201d
\nThe measure would allow people to opt out of data processing if a company changes its privacy policy. It requires \u201caffirmative express consent before sensitive data can be transferred to a third party.\u201d
\nConsumers could sue \u201cbad actors who violate their privacy rights \u2013 and recover money for damages when they\u2019ve been harmed\u201d and would stop \u201ccompanies from using people\u2019s personal information to discriminate against them,\u201d the statement said.
\nThe bill would require \u201cannual reviews of algorithms to ensure they do not put individuals, including our youth, at risk of harm, including discrimination.\u201d
\n(Reuters)Data privacy legislation. data privacy legislation, consumer data, personal information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two key U.S. lawmakers reached a deal on draft bipartisan data privacy legislation that would restrict the data collected by technology companies and give Americans control over their personal information. The legislation would also allow individuals to prevent the selling of their personal data and compel its deletion. The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general authority to oversee consumer privacy issues and establish enforcement mechanisms. The legislation does not ban targeted advertising but gives consumers the ability to opt out of it. The bill also includes provisions for fines for privacy violations and annual reviews of algorithms to ensure they do not harm individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2290,3038,1418,245,2149,3492,2148,5292,279,33,2577,5530,2021,2264,2369,5529,2681,3235,358,249,1594,250,1419,2796,2685,2952,252,687,3406,2628,393,5328,5531,4833,1004,2847,4849,4145,1022,1812,4054,827,2173,817,1827,729,1682,1875,1006,380,173,483,18,5447],"class_list":["post-7310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-advertising","tag-agreement","tag-allegations","tag-alphabet","tag-ban","tag-bill","tag-bytedance","tag-children","tag-comment","tag-companies","tag-concerns","tag-consumer-data","tag-consumers","tag-damages","tag-data","tag-data-privacy-legislation","tag-disclosure","tag-discrimination","tag-energy","tag-facebook","tag-fines","tag-google","tag-investigation","tag-issues","tag-legislation","tag-media","tag-meta","tag-meta-platforms","tag-minors","tag-money","tag-new-york","tag-party","tag-personal-information","tag-policy","tag-power","tag-privacy","tag-privacy-policy","tag-privacy-violations","tag-republican","tag-rights","tag-risk","tag-security","tag-settlement","tag-social-media","tag-statement","tag-strike","tag-technology","tag-tiktok","tag-trade","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-violations","tag-world","tag-youth"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n