A Three-Step Plan to Promote Consumer Privacy

[Commentary] There are steps Congress can and should take to improve consumer privacy. Here are three big ones.

First, Congress should repeal the common-carrier exemption.
Second, Congress should pre-empt the current patchwork of state privacy laws by setting a single standard to govern consumer privacy throughout the country.
Third, Congress should direct the FTC to update its current privacy regime and reconsider which types of data are sensitive.

[Tom Struble is a technology policy manager with the R Street Institute. Joe Kane is a tech policy associate at the R Street Institute.]