U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown Proposes a Data Accountability and Transparency Act of 2020

On June 18, 2020, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, released a draft privacy bill, the Data Accountability and Transparency Act of 2020.

The key provision of the Data Accountability and Transparency Act include the following:

• Ban on the collection, use or sharing of personal data unless specifically allowed by law;
• Ban on the use of facial recognition technology;
• Prohibition on the use of personal data to discriminate in housing, employment, credit, insurance, and public accommodations;
• Requiring anyone using decision-making algorithms to provide accountability reports;
• Establishing a new, independent agency dedicated to protecting individuals’ privacy and the implementation of the Act. The agency will have rulemaking, supervisory, and enforcement authority, the ability to issue civil penalties for violations of the Act, and a dedicated Office of Civil Rights to protect individuals from discrimination;
• Private right of action and enforcement by state attorneys general;
• No preemption of more protective state laws;
• Requiring CEO certification of compliance with the Act and potential criminal and civil penalties for CEOs and Board of Directors.

Senator Brown’s proposal joins a growing number of federal privacy legislation proposed in the last two years, including widely discussed draft Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and the United States Consumer Data Privacy Act by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS).  In addition, at least three federal statutes were recently proposed to address privacy issues related to the COVID-19 data and applications.

Given the continuing disagreement among the U.S. lawmakers on the key issues of preemption and private right of action in the privacy legislation, the government’s focus on dealing with the health and economic aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the upcoming November elections, it is still unlikely that a major federal privacy bill will be passed this year.  However, Senator Brown’s proposal, along with other recent privacy bills, is a reminder that privacy and data protection remain on top of the federal legislators’ minds and we should expect a robust debate of these issues in the near future.

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