Ex-FTC Investigator Joins Consumer, Industry Witnesses for Senate Privacy Hearing
Consumer advocates, industry representatives and a former FTC investigator will address proposals for a federal privacy law that either supersedes state laws or moves beyond them when they testify Wednesday before the Senate Privacy Subcommittee (see 2507240037).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
Former Consumer Protection Bureau Director Samuel Levine, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Executive Director Alan Butler, Business Software Alliance (BSA) Managing Director Kate Goodloe, Main Street Privacy Coalition General Counsel Paul Martino and Digital Progress Institute President Joel Thayer are scheduled to appear.
Goodloe’s prepared testimony for BSA calls for Congress to craft a federal privacy law to preempt state laws. State attorneys general should be granted authority to enforce such a law, her testimony said. In addition, the proposed federal law should distinguish between controllers, which decide how data is handled, and processors, companies that handle data on behalf of the controllers, it said.
Butler’s testimony for EPIC calls for a federal privacy law that bolsters state laws with added clarity and more robust enforcement. “Most states already operate on a common framework, so if federal privacy legislation sets a higher floor for protections than exists in current state privacy laws, compliance with that floor will be sufficient to meet state standards and will serve as a deterrent to states to enact additional laws until changes in technology necessitate it,” his testimony said.
Martino’s testimony calls for a national privacy law that would create statutory obligations instead of contractual requirements for “all entities” handling consumer data. Main Street will argue for equivalent standards for all businesses, according to testimony excerpts: Prior federal bills have often exempted “Big Tech, telecom, cable, and financial industry service providers from the same obligations to protect consumer privacy as Main Street businesses.”