WASHINGTON- U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) highlighted the need to protect consumers’ online data at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing “Policy Principles for a Federal Data Privacy Framework in the United States.” In her questioning, Klobuchar highlighted how companies repeatedly misuse consumers’ data and outlined how privacy legislation that she introduced with Senator Kennedy, the Social Media Privacy and Consumer Rights Act, creates “digital rules of the road” that would protect the privacy of consumers’ online data by improving transparency, strengthening consumers’ recourse options when a breach of data occurs, and ensuring companies are compliant with privacy policies that protect consumers.
“Companies that you represent have been lobbying against legislation like this for years… it’s never right enough, or they’ve got your backs, and it happens time and time again… But there is a reason that the states are doing this, so let’s not forget that when we talk about states and different patchworks of regulation,” Klobuchar said.
“So my first question is, one of the first aspects of our bill is that it requires 72 hour notice of a breach, and when I asked Mr. Zuckerberg when he appeared before the committee, he said that such a requirement made sense to him. Are any of you against a requirement of some kind of notice that consumers be informed in a timely manner of a breach?”
Video of Klobuchar’s questioning can be found here.
Klobuchar has been a leader in the fight to protect consumers’ private information. Senator Klobuchar and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced the Social Media Privacy and Consumer Rights Act, legislation to protect the privacy of consumers’ online data by improving transparency, strengthening consumers’ recourse options when a breach of data occurs, and ensuring companies are compliant with privacy policies that protect consumers.
More specifically, the Social Media Privacy and Consumer Rights Act legislation would:
- Give consumers the right to opt-out and keep their information private by disabling data tracking and collection,
- Provide users greater access to and control over their data,
- Require terms of service agreements to be in plain language,
- Ensure users have the ability to see what information about them has already been collected and shared,
- Mandate that users be notified of a breach of their information within 72 hours,
- Offer remedies for users when a breach occurs,
- Require that online platforms have a privacy program in place.
Social media and other online platforms routinely capture users’ behavior and personal information, which is then used to help advertisers or other third parties target those users. Senators Klobuchar and Kennedy’s legislation would protect the privacy of consumers’ online data.
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