Bipartisan federal bill seeks to standardize US privacy protections

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a federal privacy bill.

Over the weekend, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) unveiled a bipartisan, bicameral data privacy proposal that, if it were to pass, could fundamentally alter the US consumer privacy landscape.

The bill, called the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), would, among other things, give consumers the right to opt out of targeted advertising, allow them to delete any data that was collected about them, and create a federal data broker registry. If it were to become law, it could simplify the patchwork of privacy laws that currently exist across more than a dozen states including Virginia, California, and Texas, as it would preempt state legislation.

“This bipartisan, bicameral draft legislation is the best opportunity we’ve had in decades to establish a national data privacy and security standard that gives people the right to control their personal information,” Cantwell and McMorris Rodgers said in a press release.

Punchbowl News first broke the story on the proposed legislation.

What’s in this bill? In addition to the targeted advertising opt-out and the federal data broker registry, the bill would also allow for a private right of action, meaning individual citizens could sue businesses directly, instead of having to wait for action by regulators or state attorneys general. The inclusion of that right, as well as the bill’s preemption of existing state privacy laws, could make passing the APRA an uphill battle, the Spokesman Review noted in an interview with the legislators.

“We’re still open to constructive feedback,” McMorris Rodgers told the Spokesman Review.

What industry thinks: Lartease Tiffith, EVP of public policy at the IAB, told Marketing Brew that the bill “is a major step forward” from previous bills, but that the inclusion of “a private right of action could create a flood of lawsuits, so it’s important that the language be airtight.”

We’ve been here before: Previous attempts at passing federal privacy legislation have stalled. (Whom among us could forget the American Data Privacy Protection Act introduced in 2022?) Other efforts have included bills that created specific protections for children, which initially gained steam before dissipating.