Facebook, Google, Microsoft ask Congress to pass privacy rights for Europeans

Major tech companies are joining with the US Chamber of Commerce to urge lawmakers to extend American privacy protections to foreigners in Europe. Nearly two years after National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks about US spying, Silicon Valley is still struggling from foreign distrust, companies wrote to congressional leaders. But extending data protections to citizens in other nations would go a long way to rebuilding that bridge and providing some security for American businesses. “This will help foster a robust relationship between the US and the EU and rebuild trust in US-EU data flows,” trade groups and individual companies wrote. “Transnational data flows serve as a key component of the digital trade that increasingly drives US economic growth.”

In particular, they urged support for the Judicial Redress Act, introduced by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) earlier in 2015. The bill would extend to citizens of major US allies core provisions of the Privacy Act, which outline protections for Americans’ personally identifiable data. The letter was signed by individual companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook, as well as industry trade groups inducing the Information Technology Industry Council and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.