American Privacy Rights Act Hearing Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the House Energy & Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on a number of privacy bills, including the proposed American Privacy Rights Act (APRA). EPIC sent a statement for the record to the Committee.

EPIC highlighted the APRA’s strong data minimization provisions, which meaningfully limit the collection and use of personal data to what is “necessary, proportionate, and limited” to provide a product or service (or for certain enumerated exceptions.) This limitation will better align company’s data collection practices with what consumers expect, and we commended the sponsors for including these strong protections.

But EPIC also highlighted that if the APRA is to preempt existing and future state privacy laws, it must be stronger than current state laws and resilient to future shifts in technology and business practices. “The privacy landscape in the United States has shifted considerably since the American Data Privacy and Protection Act was introduced in 2022,” EPIC told the Committee. EPIC noted that this situation makes the preemption compromise in the APRA complex for businesses to follow and suggested an alternative model.

The American Privacy Rights Act presents Congress with the best opportunity it has had in decades to stop the very real data abuses and privacy harms that are happening every minute of every day, but it must meet the moment we are in in 2024. EPIC will continue to work with Congress to strengthen the bill.