Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes:
Data privacy talk in Congress seems kind of ironic coming just a week after lawmakers rejected a proposal to make federal authorities get a warrant to search Americans’ electronic communications. But in keeping with that move, the American Privacy Rights Act—a draft data privacy bill that will be getting a hearing in the House Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee today—would exempt governments and entities dealing with data on behalf of the government from its protections.
The bill would also give more power to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and create an “unprecedented” private right of action to sue companies over data handling, according to Yaël Ossowski.
Ossowski is deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center, which bills itself as “an independent, non-partisan consumer advocacy group championing the benefits of freedom of choice, innovation, and abundance in everyday life.” I talked to him yesterday about the bill’s (few) benefits and its (myriad) drawbacks.
Read more at Reason, where the article originally appeared on April 17.
Related: Americans Deserve More Than the Current American Privacy Rights Act (April 16)
h/t, Joe Cadillic