The Honest Ads Act would help prevent foreign actors from influencing our elections by ensuring that political ads sold online have the same transparency and disclosure requirements as ads sold on TV, radio, and satellite 

The Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act would increase transparency by strengthening disclosure requirements, ensure the right to control one’s own data by allowing people to opt out of data collection and tracking, and require notification of a privacy violation within 72 hours

WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar highlighted her bipartisan bills, the Honest Ads Act and the Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie. Klobuchar also questioned Wylie about Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the scope of the Cambridge Analytica data breach.

“We need to make sure what happened to people’s data in the last election doesn’t happen again - that’s why we need to pass my bipartisan bill with Senator Kennedy to protect consumer’s privacy online. Our bill would strengthen disclosure requirements, give consumers the right to control their own data by letting people opt out of having their data collected and require companies to notify consumers of a privacy violation within 72 hours,” Klobuchar said. “We also need to pass the bipartisan Honest Ads Act, which I introduced with Senator McCain and Senator Warner to ensure more transparency around online political ads.”

In April, Klobuchar and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced legislation that would protect the privacy of consumers’ online data. The bipartisan Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act would require companies to make privacy disclosures clearer and more transparent, give consumers the right to control their own data by allowing people to opt-out of having their data collected, and require companies to notify consumers of a privacy violation within 72 hours.   

In October, Klobuchar introduced the Honest Ads Act with U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, to help prevent foreign interference in future elections and improve the transparency of online political advertisements. Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election by buying and placing political ads on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. The content and purchaser(s) of those online advertisements are a mystery to the public because of outdated laws that have failed to keep up with evolving technology. The Honest Ads Act would prevent foreign actors from influencing our elections by ensuring that political ads sold online are covered by the same rules as ads sold on TV, radio, and satellite.

Video of Klobuchar speaking at the hearing is available for download here for her first series of questions and here for her second. 

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