Online privacy

House committee leaders are still unable to strike a final deal on key privacy issues and are instead opting to release a discussion draft as bipartisan talks continue. House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is spearheading those talks in the chamber. She will release a draft bill as early as next week that will not address hotly contested issues over whether a national standard should override state laws or enable consumers to sue companies over privacy violations.

Advocacy groups are urging the Federal Trade Commission to step up enforcement of a federal privacy law that prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting data from children younger than 13 without their parents' permission.

On June 24, 2019, Reps Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) to raise the concerns of domestic violence victims with the news that wireless customers' real-time location data can be acquired from carriers. On December 3, FCC Chairman replied that the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has been working on this investigation, reviewing over 50,000 pages of documents. "Based on the latest update I have received, the Bureau’s investigation is nearing its conclusion, and I am confident that the Bureau will be able to announce the results no later than the end of January.

The Federal Trade Commission issued an Opinion finding that the data analytics and consulting company Cambridge Analytica, LLC engaged in deceptive practices to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting. The Opinion also found that Cambridge Analytica engaged in deceptive practices relating to its participation in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework. In an administrative complaint filed in July, FTC staff alleged that Cambridge Analytica and its then-CEO Alexander Nix and app developer Aleksandr Kogan deceived consumers.

Pediatricians and consumer advocates are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate practices for collecting online data about children, amid concerns advertisers might be manipulating children with targeted ads.

Senators argued over their dueling proposals for a federal privacy law during a highly anticipated hearing Dec 4, marking the first time key senators have taken their disputes public after months of closed-doors negotiations.

The Federal Communications Commission supplied Democratic leaders on the House Commerce Committee with an update on a long-running probe of wireless carriers’ unauthorized disclosure of subscriber location data to third parties. Those lawmakers last month requested that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai arrange for an update to Congress by Nov.

Sen Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) -- the top Democrat on the Senate Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet Subcommittee -- led a group of 16 senators in reintroducing legislation to protect people’s personal data online. The Data Care Act would require websites, apps, and other online providers to take responsible steps to safeguard personal information and stop the misuse of users’ data. 

The Data Care Act establishes reasonable duties that will require providers to protect user data and will prohibit providers from using user data to their detriment:

Although separate Republican and Democratic bills are not the joint bipartisan proposal widely anticipated for several months, the bills and the hearing this week kick off the concrete discussion about privacy legislation that stakeholders have wanted for several months. The first bill to emerge was the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act filed by Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on Nov 26. Then, just before Thanksgiving, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) circulated a “staff discussion draft” of a Consumer Data Privacy Act of 2019 covering much of the same ground, but with a di