Summary of the Algorithmic Accountability Act and the Do Not Track Act

As we await developments from the bipartisan effort of the Senate Commerce Committee to release a draft federal privacy bill, we are taking a look today at two other privacy bills that have been introduced into the US Congress in the past month: the Algorithmic Accountability Act and the Do Not Track Act.

Algorithmic Accountability Act

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and US Rep. Yvette D. Clark (D-NY) introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act into Congress. It authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create regulations requiring companies to conduct impact assessments of high risk automated decision systems. The scope of the impact assessments includes privacy, security, accuracy, fairness, bias, and discrimination. It also is required if it involves the personal information of a significant number of consumers on a list of particularly sensitive topics. The bill requires a similar assessment for high risk information systems.

The Algorithmic Accountability Act requires companies to correct any issues they discover during the impact assessments. It would also make it illegal to commit the prohibited acts even if there was an agreement between the consumer and the business entity to allow the conduct. The proposed law would be enforced by the FTC as a violation of the unfair or deceptive trade practices clause of the FTC Act. It would also enable enforcement by the states attorney general in certain situations.

Do Not Track Act

The newly proposed Do Not Track Act has seen a significant amount of media coverage over the past few days. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the bill into the US Senate today.

It was modeled after the Do Not Call list for telemarketers. The National Do Not Call Registry is a database maintained by the United States federal government which maintains a list of telephone numbers not to be contacted by telemarketers. It was established by the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003, setup by the FTC and extended by the Do-Not Call Improvement Act of 2007.

The new bill would reinvigorate the voluntary Do Not Track browser standard, which was first introduced in 2009 but has not seen wide spread adoption by businesses. Around 25% of people are already broadcasting a DNT browser setting however.

The DNT standard was previously suggested as part of a discussion draft of the Consumer Data Protection Act floated by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Senator Wyden recently proposed a different privacy bill: Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2019. A draft of a DNT bill was proposed earlier this month by a consumer privacy company.

Here is how Senator Hawley’s office described the bill to the media:

– The bill allows Americans to tell companies not to track them through a browser setting or mobile app.

– It would prevent businesses from creating profiles of or sharing information belonging to customers on the Do Not Track list.

– It prohibits discrimination against people who use Do Not Track.

– Enforcement powers for the Do Not Track Act would be given to the FTC as well as the state attorneys general.

The text of the bill has not been released. We will update this blog post with more information when it is available.