Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association sent a letter to House leaders this week on the need for “strong, comprehensive federal privacy legislation” that protects consumers, clears up conflicts with state laws, and maintains innovation essential to U.S. productivity. Because the “American Privacy Rights Act” (APRA) misses this mark, CCIA opposes this legislation.
The House Committee on Energy & Commerce is scheduled to markup APRA and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) on Thursday. In its letter, CCIA expresses its concerns with overly restrictive data processing prohibitions and confusing knowledge standards that could harm privacy. With a broad private right of action and limited preemption of state laws, the net effect would be a poor consumer privacy framework.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association has advocated for baseline federal privacy legislation and online protections for children for more than a decade as a leader in fostering industry efforts to advance trust and safety online.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO Matt Schruers:
“After waiting so long for federal privacy standards it is unfortunate to see a muddled bill that has requirements that conflict with logic and the broadly shared goals of protecting privacy. APRA implements overly restrictive burdens on companies that will degrade services that consumers rely on. Backed by unpredictable enforcement mechanisms, the result will be a net negative for privacy and technological innovation. Nothing less than a substantial re-working of APRA is necessary to make this legislation work in the marketplace.”
“On KOSA, serious concerns arise which could chill constitutional speech. Protecting children should not come at the cost of greater privacy risk by forced data collections or implementing untested age-gating technologies.”