Is This Finally the Beginning of Some National Online Privacy Legislation?

The American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 would set clear data privacy rights and establish robust enforcement mechanisms. The bipartisan effort was introduced by House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

“It reins in Big Tech by prohibiting them from tracking, predicting, and manipulating people’s behaviors for profit without their knowledge and consent,” said McMorris Rodgers.

“A federal data privacy law must do two things: it must make privacy a consumer right, and it must give consumers the ability to enforce that right,” said Cantwell.

Per the legislation, the uniform national data privacy rights would:

· Eliminates the patchwork of state laws by setting one national privacy standard, stronger than any state.

· Minimizes the data that companies can collect, keep, and use about people, of any age, to what companies need to provide them products and services.

· Gives Americans control over where their personal information goes, including the ability to prevent the transfer or selling of their data. The bill also allows individuals to opt out of data processing if a…