The Fire Under the Trump Privacy Push

A tech industry source close to Trump administration’s push to come up with some sort of national privacy policy fills us in on the scheduling nitty-gritty. The White House is expected to issue a set of draft rules in late summer or early fall at the latest. The draft will be opened up for comment, possibly via a formal Commerce Department request for information. From there, legislation is a possibility, though not the only one on the table. If it seems like the privacy push is moving at an expedited pace, there’s a reason for that. In a word, Privacy Shield. The transatlantic data deal is up for review in October, and “we want to show the Europeans that privacy does matter here on the other side of the Atlantic, and we’re truly working in a constructive manner to get that done,” says the source. Moreover, with European regulators and legislators starting to pitch jurisdictions around the world on the merits of Europe's GDPR-style regulation, “this Administration doesn’t want to concede leadership on privacy,” says the source. “They want to show that, ‘Hey, America still matters.’”