Two leading US lawmakers have reached an agreement on a bipartisan data privacy bill, according to a report published by Reuters on Sunday. The bill would limit the collection of consumer data by technology companies and give Americans the power to block the sale of their personal information or request deletion.
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Commerce Committee, and Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, signed the deal. This would give individuals control over the use of their personal information and require disclosure if the data is transferred to a foreign adversary.
Congress has been debating online privacy protections since at least 2019, largely due to concerns about the use of data by social media companies such as Metaplatforms Inc.'s Facebook, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and ByteDance Inc. Inc.'s TikTok Inc. No agreement has been reached.
Aides said they hope to move the bill forward soon. Meta, TikTok, and Google could not be reached for comment.
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Lawmakers said in a joint statement that the plan would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general broad authority to oversee consumer privacy issues, and would “improve liability for violators,” including private rights of action. A robust enforcement mechanism will be established to pursue Individual.
The bill does not ban targeted advertising, but it does allow consumers to opt out. The FTC would create a new bureau focused on privacy and potentially impose fines for privacy violations, which would also apply to telecommunications companies.
Senator Cantwell and Senator Rogers believe that this bipartisan, bicameral bill represents the best opportunity in decades to establish national data privacy and security standards. They argue that it gives people the right to control their personal information. The measure would allow people to opt out of data processing if companies change their privacy policies.
Consumers will be able to “sue bad actors who violate their privacy rights and recover damages if they have been harmed,'' and it will prevent “companies from using people's personal information to discriminate.'' says the statement.
The bill would also require “annual reviews of algorithms to ensure they do not expose individuals, including youth, to risk of harm, including discrimination.”
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