Federal Privacy Legislation Updates
Politico reports that progress is actually being made on comprehensive federal privacy legislation. Apparently, members of the House and Senate are circulating a draft bill that includes bipartisan compromise. Additionally, they currently have come to an accord on two of the toughest issues needing to be addressed in any federal privacy law: Preemption and a private right of action.
The private right of action has been the biggest sticking point in privacy legislation. The state of Washington still hasn’t passed a comprehensive privacy law and the big battleground as they’ve attempted to do so year after year has been the private right of action. Consumer advocates see the private right of action as a necessity. Business advocates see it as a nonstarter.
It seems that both issues will be handled in a way that both sides, consumer advocates and business advocates, get a little bit of what they want. In the context of preemption that means that there may be limits to preemption, leaving some areas under state control, such as legislation addressing novel technology issues.
For the private right of action, possible compromises are being discussed around thresholds. Legislators may require actual damages or surpassing a minimal level before giving rise to the right of action.
Right now, Senator Cantwell, who is involved in the compromises as part of the Commerce Committee working on the comprehensive federal privacy legislation, is not entirely on board with the private right of action that other committee members have agreed upon. Cantwell wants a more pro-consumer approach with lower thresholds.
A comprehensive federal privacy law would be a game changer. Even a limited private right of action would really pressure companies to take privacy seriously. It would be like the General Data Protection Regulation all over again, with companies scrambling to get themselves compliant, but not nearly enough privacy professionals to help them with all of their needs.
Now is probably a good time to bring your privacy program up to date. Clarip can help. Clarip helps companies with data privacy compliance. We have automated data subject request fulfillment, automated data mapping, website scanning, consent management, vendor management, and much, much more.
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