Privacy for America Releases Detailed Policy Framework to Provide Strong Data Privacy Protections for All Americans

Privacy for America, a coalition of top advertising trade organizations and companies, released a comprehensive new framework for nationwide privacy legislation that would fundamentally change the way consumer privacy and security are protected in this country. The framework represents a new approach to data privacy that would not rely on the current ‘notice and choice’ model, which presents consumers with endless and complex privacy notices that they are essentially forced to accept if they want to participate in today’s economy. Instead, this new approach clearly defines and would make illegal data practices that would harm consumers or otherwise make personal data vulnerable to breach or misuse. Among the framework’s provisions are:

• Prohibitions against using consumer data to determine eligibility for a job, health care, financial aid, insurance, credit or housing outside of existing laws governing eligibility for these important benefits;
• Prohibitions against discrimination by using consumer data to set higher prices based on an individual’s race, color, religion, sexual orientation, and more;
• Prohibitions against using sensitive information like health, financial, biometric, and geolocation data without first obtaining users’ express consent;
• Provisions protecting so-called “tweens”: a vulnerable group of consumers over age 12 and under age 16 that is actively engaged online but not often subject to constant parental oversight;
• A requirement that companies make privacy policies much easier to read and understand;
• Provisions that give consumers the right to request access to and deletion of the personal information that a company holds about them, as well as the right to port certain data from one platform to another;
• Individuals can choose to limit companies’ use of personal information to draw detailed inferences or make predictions about them, with certain exceptions; and
• Significant new rulemaking authority, resources, and staff that will allow the Federal Trade Commission to more aggressively pursue and punish bad actors, bolstered by enforcement by state attorneys general.