Poll: Vast Majority of Americans Support Online Data Protection Legislation

A new poll from Morning Consult found that 83% of voters say that Congress should pass national data privacy legislation this year. Democrats (86%) and Republicans (81%) expressed bipartisan support for Congress to prioritize a federal privacy bill. The poll also found that voters place similar amounts of responsibility on both federal and state lawmakers, as well as federal regulators, to regulate data privacy. With respect to regulating how companies collect, store, and share personal information, 72% of voters said Congress is either “very responsible” or “somewhat responsible” while 79% said the same for federal agencies and 75% for state governments. Nearly 9 in 10 adults said it was either “very” or “somewhat” important to protect their most sensitive identifiable information under a privacy law, including Social Security number (89%), banking information (89%), biometric data (88%), and driver’s license number (88%). EPIC has called for comprehensive baseline federal legislation and the creation of a U.S. data protection agency, and has advocated for strong state privacy laws.