Kurt Wimmer of Covington & Burling write:
As the push for Congress to pass comprehensive consumer privacy legislation increases, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) has re-introduced the Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act, a compromise proposal that contains provisions sought by both parties. This bill would create national data privacy standards and increase the enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general. This proposal largely contains the same provisions as past versions of the bill, including:
I’m going to skip over his first bullet points to call your attention to a few of them:
- Preemption: The bill also creates a national standard by preempting conflicting state laws, with the exception of state laws that involve data breach notifications, state biometric laws, and state wiretapping laws.
- Enforcement by the FTC and State Attorneys General: This bill empowers the FTC to enforce regulations promulgated under this bill as well as fine violators on the first offense. It also grants authority to state attorneys general to pursue violations if the FTC chooses not to pursue them on its own.
- Increased FTC Capacity: The bill appropriates $350,000,000 to the FTC for issues related to privacy and data security and authorizes the agency to hire 500 new full-time employees.
Read more on InsidePrivacy.