There’s a lot of discussion right now about how a federal privacy bill, the American Data Privacy Protection Act (H.R.8152), will affect state privacy laws. EFF has a clear position on this: federal privacy laws should not roll back state privacy protections. The ADPPA, as currently written, would override a broad swath of existing state laws and prevent states from future action on those areas, a structure called “preemption.” We have expressed disappointment and called on Congress to do better.
The debate around the ADPPA’s preemption provisions has centered largely on whether or not it’s stronger than current state privacy laws, therefore lowering the bar for the country right now. But that’s only part of the issue: we must also look to the future. So the ADPPA’s current preemption language is bad for everyone in the country—not only those who happen to live in one of the states that have passed data privacy statutes.
Flattening Many Existing Privacy Laws
At least five states have enacted comprehensive consumer data privacy statutes in the past few years: Connecticut, Utah, Colorado, Virginia, and California. Like ADPPA, these laws govern how companies can collect, use, store, or share data, and they allow people to access, delete, or stop sale of their data. EFF wanted more from these laws, but they nonetheless demonstrate the ongoing commitment of state legislators to protect their residents’ data privacy. Some provisions of these state laws are This article has been indexed from Deeplinks
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