Congress, don’t waste this chance on privacy legislation
Congress is finally close to passing the privacy legislation lawmakers have been promising for years — and close, also, to letting the opportunity pass. Compared to the hurdles legislators have faced so far, the ones that remain aren’t tall, and there’s no excuse not to surmount them.
Key members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Commerce Committee introduced this month the bipartisan, bicameral American Data Privacy and Protection Act. But other important players still refrain from offering the legislation their full-throated support.
The bill isn’t perfect, but it’s better than good, and it deserves the backing of today’s holdouts. Most importantly, the legislation instructs internet companies to collect and process only the personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide the service consumers are receiving — no surprises. This change shifts the paradigm; no longer would the burden be on consumers to understand and consent to all manner of invasive practices. Instead, the onus would be on companies not to violate a newly bolstered set of rights to which all citizens are entitled.
On the two areas that bedeviled lawmakers for so long, lawmakers have found compromise. A private right of action enabling individuals to sue companies would be delayed for four years after the bill is enacted, and prospective litigants would have to notify state and local officials before filing. The legislation would also preempt the privacy laws states have passed in recent years, replacing a patchwork of conflicting state statutes with national rules easier for companies to follow with an appropriate list of exceptions. Certainly, there’s room for change: narrowing that four-year window to two years, say, or — unrelated to these former sticking points — securing a commitment of appropriations for a Federal Trade Commission about to be saddled with new responsibility. But the objections from those yet to climb on board are minor enough that alterations to be made in the markup process should be enough to overcome them.
Congress may think it still has time to work on this bill. But the truth is, the turnover that is expected to follow the upcoming midterm elections could worsen the chances of success by committees whose current leadership has been laboring for almost two years now to bring this bill to life. Letting it die now would be a grave mistake.