Government looks at online privacy

White House works on plan to protect web users’ privacy.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is crafting a proposal to protect web users’ privacy, aiming to blunt global criticism that the absence of strict federal rules in the United States has enabled data mishaps at Facebook and others in Silicon Valley.

Over the past month, the Commerce Department has been huddling with representatives of tech giants such as Facebook and Google, internet providers including AT&T and Comcast, and consumer advocates, according to four people familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak on the record.

The government’s goal is to release an initial set of ideas this fall that outlines web users’ rights, including general principles for how companies should collect and handle consumers’ private information, the people said. The forthcoming blueprint could then become the basis for Congress to write the country’s first wide-ranging online-privacy law, an idea the White House recently has said it could endorse.

“Through the White House National Economic Council, the Trump Administration aims to craft a consumer privacy protection policy that is the appropriate balance between privacy and prosperity,” Lindsay Walters, the president’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Congress on a legislative solution consistent with our overarching policy.”

If history is any guide, the process could prove politically grueling. Intense disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over the need for government regulation — on top of wellfunded lobbying efforts by tech giants such as Facebook and Google — long have forestalled progress on even the simplest attempts to improve privacy online.

This time, however, advocates for stronger privacy protections say the odds are in their favor — especially because California implemented privacy rules in June in the face of federal inaction. The risk that other states might follow California’s lead has prompted some once-recalcitrant tech and telecom firms to cooperate with federal regulators.