A group of bipartisan legislators presented a new congressional privacy bill in early June. The bill, if enacted, would pre-empt most state data privacy laws. The bill also would allow individuals to opt out of targeted advertisement and to assert legal claims against companies who unlawfully sell their data, among other things. This is the first major step toward a federal privacy law since 2019, amid the emerging trend of state privacy laws in the last two years.

Like the EU GDPR, the Congressional bill would require companies to follow principles such as data minimization and, subject to certain exceptions, would ban them from charging individuals seeking to exercise their privacy rights. At the same time, the bill would provide a narrower scope of rights to data subjects, only granting users the right to access, correct, and delete their data.

The bill would also establish a new bureau under the Federal Trade Commission, to oversee and enforce the new law. The bill would grant individuals a private right of action against companies only after notifying state and federal officials, who may elect to take over the lawsuit.

Despite some progress in advancing the bill through Congress, major obstacles remain on the bill’s path to enactment, given that prominent senators from both parties have expressed their objections to the bill.

CLICK HERE to read the American Data Privacy and Protection Bill.