Senate Judiciary Vets Privacy Protection Legislation Contours at Hearing

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feintsein (D-CA) made it clear that her state's tough privacy legislation will have to be the floor for any federal privacy legislation. The hearing was on that California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as well as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation adopted by the European Union. Sen Feinstein suggested the California bill should be even tougher, make more privacy control decisions opt in, rather than the opt out in which CCPA is based. "I won't support any privacy bill that weakens the California standard," she said, and added that a federal bill would also need to include data breach notification, legislation she pointed out she has been trying to get passed since 2003. Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) talked in more broad strokes about the need to educate consumers about how their information is being monetized by media companies, and the fact that while a TV station or print publisher is responsible for the information on their platforms, Web content providers have a legal carveout that gives them liability protection as so-called neutrality platforms.