Cameron Kerry

When the late Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow penned his “Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace” in 1996, proclaiming “our virtual selves immune to your sovereignty,” he railed against “the great invertebrate in the White House” and the “Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel.” So what would Barlow have thought when, on April 28, 2022, 60 governments, mostly from the industrial world, met (in person or in their virtual selves) at the White House to sign a “ Declaration on the Future of the Internet,” initiated by the United States along with Au

The 116th Congress opened with great energy and promise for federal privacy legislation across both houses and parties. By the end of 2019, though, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) each released separate proposals, respectively the draft US Consumer Data Privacy Act (USCDPA) and the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA).

Although separate Republican and Democratic bills are not the joint bipartisan proposal widely anticipated for several months, the bills and the hearing this week kick off the concrete discussion about privacy legislation that stakeholders have wanted for several months. The first bill to emerge was the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act filed by Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on Nov 26. Then, just before Thanksgiving, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) circulated a “staff discussion draft” of a Consumer Data Privacy Act of 2019 covering much of the same ground, but with a di

Several of the draft bills related to privacy in the 116th Congress present concrete signs of an emerging shift in the underlying model for privacy regulation in the current discussion, from one based on consumer choice to another focused on business behavior in handling data. This paper focuses on this key element of the taxonomy—how proposals reflect this shifting paradigm and how the change affects other aspects of privacy protection.

Will this new Congress be the one to pass data privacy legislation? So far the Senate has done the most visible work. And, with a variety of stakeholders contributing input, will this be enough to bring about passage? As a committed optimist, it’s my belief that there is a sweet spot where business interests and privacy advocates can converge.

Recent congressional hearings and data breaches have prompted more legislators and business leaders to say the time for broad federal privacy legislation has come. Cameron Kerry presents the case for adoption of a baseline framework to protect consumer privacy in the US. Kerry explores a growing gap between existing laws and an information Big Bang that is eroding trust. He suggests that recent privacy bills have not been ambitious enough, and points to the Obama administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights as a blueprint for future legislation.

[Commentary] As the new administration takes office, we will start to see just how literally to take Donald Trump’s pronouncements and the promised targeting of his predecessor’s executive orders for immediate destruction. Trade policy appointments signal that statements about being aggressive against barriers to trade should be taken very literally. Below we make the case that the Obama executive order extending certain privacy protections to ordinary foreign citizens should not be on the chopping block because it is vital to transatlantic digital trade and ecommerce.

A keystone underlying support for the Privacy Shield is President Obama’s 2014 Presidential Policy Directive 28 (PPD-28) declaring that “all persons should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their nationality or wherever they might reside, and all persons have legitimate privacy interests in the handling of their personal information.” This order extended to citizens of foreign countries safeguards that require that surveillance of Americans be targeted carefully for defined and legitimate purposes. These safeguards essentially protect the privacy interests of innocent foreigners whose electronic communications are scooped up by the NSA merely as incidental collections to the agency’s actual targeting of malicious individuals. The President-elect, his transition team, and his incoming national security and economic teams would be wise to heed these bipartisan recommendations by keeping PPD-28 and upholding the Privacy Shield.

[Cameron Kerry is Senior Counsel at Sidley Austin, LLP in Boston and Washington, DC, and a Visiting Scholar the MIT Media Lab.
Alan Raul is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP]

[Commentary] The revelation of NSA surveillance practices sparked a national debate about privacy and security. In a world where much of our communication relies on data gathering mobile technologies, should all of our digital information still be available for private sector collection and government monitoring?

How can we reform digital security and privacy policy to preserve liberty as an American value? Privacy and security are necessary factors in maintaining consumer confidence.

However, the disclosure of NSA monitoring activities eroded global trust in American commitment to protecting privacy and in American companies.

As part of the Obama Administration, I worked on developing the February 2012 White House Blueprint on Consumer Privacy. The Blueprint articulates seven principles for protecting consumer rights in a global digital age: individual control, transparency, respect for the context in which information is provided, security, focused collection, access and accuracy, and accountability. The Blueprint not only strengthens the trust between consumers and businesses on the web, but also symbolizes the American commitment to data privacy in the future.

[Kerry served as General Counsel and Acting Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce]