Senators' year-end push on privacy

After months of talks on bipartisan legislation, Senate Commerce Committee leaders have unveiled dueling privacy bills ahead of a hearing on Dec 4. But insiders believe the process might still yield a compromise both parties can embrace. Sen. Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act would give the Federal Trade Commission greater enforcement authority and would allow consumers to enforce the law by bringing civil lawsuits. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) circulated his discussion draft, the United States Consumer Data Privacy Act; the bill would:

• Provide consumers with the ability to access, correct, delete and port data companies have about them, and it would provide limited rule-making authority to the Federal Trade Commission, according to a copy obtained by Axios.
• Preempt state privacy regulations and would not provide individual citizens with a private right of action to sue companies, two sticking points for Democrats.