Senate Privacy Hearing: Apologies, Explanations, And Weak Support

On September 26, 2018, executives from six major U.S. tech and communications companies testified before the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing titled Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy. Representatives from Amazon, AT&T, Google, Twitter, Apple, and Charter were there to help lawmakers as they all discussed “possible approaches to safeguarding privacy more effectively.” Tech companies, on the whole, followed the trend that has emerged out of Silicon Valley when they testify before Congress: Apologize, explain, and offer to work with lawmakers on a regulatory solution. And what they buffered their offer with was this: we support federal laws that would safeguard user privacy — if those laws aren’t as stringent as rules recently adopted in Europe and California.