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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 18 January 2019
Battle lines forming ahead of a looming U.S. privacy law fight

By RACHEL LERMAN and tries — and would prevent
TALI ARBEL states from enacting stron-
AP Technology Writers ger measures.
Consumer advocates and "A lot of privacy activists
the data-hungry technol- are entrenched in creating
ogy industry are drawing ever more complicated
early battle lines in ad- rules," Daniel Castro, a co-
vance of an expected fight author of the ITIF report's,
this year over what kind of said by email. "The only
federal privacy law the U.S. way to simplify these rules is
should have. to rewrite them."
On Thursday, more than a Privacy experts say the
dozen privacy organiza- baseline protections in the
tions unveiled a plan that ITIF proposal still leave con-
would create a new feder- sumers at the mercy of big
al data-protection agency corporations. For instance,
focused on regulating the its "limited" consumer pro-
way businesses and other tections would require in-
organizations collect and dividuals to track the com-
make use of personal data, panies that collect their
even if aggregated or an- data in order to request
onymized. The proposal access or corrections, rath-
would sideline the Federal er than shifting that burden
Trade Commission, which This Jan. 28, 2015, file photo, shows the Federal Trade Commission building in Washington. to companies themselves,
has limited powers and a said Eric Null, senior policy
mixed record of holding governing data collection that onetime political con- Florida Republican — have counsel at the New Amer-
companies to account for and privacy. Instead, it has sultants for the 2016 Trump already introduced draft ica think tank's Open Tech-
privacy problems. a patchwork of federal campaign had improperly privacy legislation. nology Institute.
On the other side, a think laws that protect specific accessed the personal in- "Privacy advocates are fed The ITIF proposal would
tank backed by Google, types of data, such as con- formation of as many as 87 up with the FTC and with also prevent individual law-
Amazon, Microsoft and sumer health and financial million users . Washington failing to reign suits against companies
other major tech compa- information and the per- Continuing revelations of in the immense power the accused of misrepresent-
nies proposed changes sonal data generated by data missteps at Face- big data giants hold," said ing or misusing their data,
that would still give the in- younger children. book and other big tech Jeffrey Chester, the execu- primarily to shield corpo-
dustry broad authority to States have also started companies have bolstered tive director of the Cen- rations from legal risk. In-
collect and use customer to pass their own tougher a U.S. reform movement. ter for Digital Democracy, stead, only government
data. The Information Tech- restrictions. A California Its advocates take heart which helped author the would be empowered to
nology and Innovation measure set to take effect from recent developments reform proposal. protect individual rights. "A
Foundation called for na- next year, for instance, will in Europe, which last year Their proposal would set federal privacy law should
tional legislation that would let consumers request the enacted sweeping privacy limits on what data compa- include the power of a
repeal and replace existing data collected from them regulations that, among nies can collect and would private individual to bring
privacy laws with a "com- and to opt out of future col- other things, require com- require firms to consider legal action," said Adam
mon set of protections" in- lection. panies to obtain permis- correcting or deleting per- Schwartz, a lawyer with the
tended to encourage inno- Calls for a national priva- sion before collecting most sonal data upon request. Electronic Freedom Foun-
vation while also quashing cy law gained force after data. Several U.S. senators It would also prevent com- dation, a digital-rights ad-
tougher state laws. Facebook's Cambridge — including Ron Wyden, an panies from giving custom- vocacy group. ITIF's plan
Unlike many industrialized Analytica scandal last year, Oregon Democrat, Brian er data to the government could potentially start a
nations, the U.S. has no in which the social media Schatz, a Hawaii Demo- unless criminal investiga- conversation in Congress
overarching national law giant was forced to admit crat, and Marco Rubio, a tions necessitated it. over repealing existing fed-
By contrast, the ITIF report eral privacy laws, Null said,
calls for a "grand bargain" but several Democratic
that would accept a na- lawmakers strongly oppose
tional privacy law long that. "We should build upon
opposed by industry. In — not dismantle — existing
the foundation's proposal, safeguards," said Sen. Ed
however, this law would Markey, a Massachusetts
establish "baseline" privacy Democrat, in an emailed
protections across all indus- statement from his office.q