"Embarrassing": Congress stumbles in the claim of a bill on the protection of consumer privacy

Congress lacks time to curb online privacy treatment by technology industry, despite Silicon Valley's bipartisan indignation following the 2016 election and a series of data scandals in companies like Facebook .

A few weeks before the August break, the window of action is disappearing – a victim of unresolved partisan divisions, legislative quarrels and late White House commitments. The few legislative days remaining this year are expected to be dominated by battles over the budget and debt ceiling, and the intensification of the election campaign will further draw political oxygen to the 2020 horizon. .

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.), Who described it as "embarrassing" and "shameful" that Congress has not made progress in the area of ​​privacy protection for consumers, again lamented the delay at a hearing this week.

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"We have been talking for two years about a privacy bill. We've seen one, we do not know if we'll ever see one, "said Kennedy. We need a microwave, not a Crock-Pot here. "

The need to intervene in Congress is even more glaring after the announcement Friday by the Federal Trade Commission of a $ 5 billion fine for the confidentiality of Facebook data, which the Democrats have largely condemned, said Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) in a statement. statement tonight.

"The FTC can not or does not want to put reasonable safeguards in place to ensure the privacy of data and users, so it's time for Congress to act," Warner said.

Yet a sense of unease has crept into the legislative effort that contrasts with what initially appeared to be a consensus between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of privacy.

Members of both parties have expressed the wish to act following last year's revelation that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm that worked for President Donald Trump's campaign, would have unduly gained access to personal information about nearly 87 million Facebook users. The controversy forced Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to submit to a congressional marathon, and prompted technology executives, including Apple and Microsoft, to seek federal privacy standards.

Members of both sides also felt it necessary to provide a US response to the EU's stringent privacy rules that came into effect last year, which are the highest standards in the world. world in consumer data processing by businesses.

But for several months, the attempt to legislate Capitol Hill has been trapped in many points of blockage. These include litigation as to whether a federal law should override more stringent privacy rules in states like California, as well as whether federal standards should be respected. apply to corporate data breaches and whether individual consumers should be able to sue companies for privacy breaches. Legislators also disagree about the extent to which the powers of the FTC, the main federal agency that oversees corporate privacy practices, are being strengthened.

The issue of federal law versus state law has been particularly problematic. While many Republicans are in favor of a national standard to supplant state rules, House of Representatives President Nancy Pelosi and other California Democrats have warned that they are not in favor of a national standard. would oppose any effort to undermine the general law on the privacy of their state, which will come into force in 2020.

The Democrats will not give in, predicted Alastair Mactaggart, the driving force behind California's privacy law, who toured Capitol Hill.

"Twenty percent of the House Democratic caucus members are from California, the speaker is from California, one of the main Democratic presidential candidates is California," said Mactaggart at an event this week. American Chamber of Commerce. "It's hard for me to see with this kind of weight in Congress how these representatives get turned around and say," Hey, no problem, eviscerate our law. "

At the same time, the Trump administration's interest in privacy seems to have dissipated.

Last year, representatives of the National Economic Council and the White House Trade Department spoke of the need for federal action to protect privacy. The National Administration of Telecommunications and Information Department of Commerce has collected hundreds of industry and public commentary to help form an administrative position. On the question.

But eight months later, the White House has not released a roadmap for consumer data protection, and some of the key officials involved, including technical advisor Abigail Slater and NTIA chief David Redl, have left. this year without replacement announced. Trump's public complaints about tech companies have mostly focused on his accusations that Google, Facebook, and Twitter would have a bias against the Conservatives – the subject of a rally this week at the White House activists. right social media.

The administration has not provided much guidance on what it would consider acceptable in a confidentiality agreement, according to several senators involved in the negotiations on privacy protection.

"We work pretty much by ourselves," said Senate President, Commerce, Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Whose panel is one of three – with the judiciary and the banking system – claiming aspects of the privacy debate.

Wicker, who is negotiating with Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), A member of her panel's rankings, after withdrawing from a broader privacy working group, said Wednesday that He was hoping "to be able to preview a bipartisan product in the coming weeks". But no Senate The committee has reached a legislative agreement and congressional leaders recognize that it will only be more difficult given the acceleration of the 2020 campaign.

"What we should be doing is tackling fundamental issues such as data privacy, where we have 350 million voters to represent and a whole bunch of companies asking us to regulate" said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).

Coons said Congress lacked its "critical window for legislating," adding that the privacy issue "was sliding from month to month, without clearly understanding who was part of a working group, how solve the competence problems, how to base for a reasonable way to follow. "

In the House, the Democrats and the Republicans have not talked much about the issue and are more distant from each other in terms of privacy. Although Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Member of the Energy and Trade Committee responsible for the effort, recently suggested that she be willing to pass a law without the support Republicans, she confirmed to reporters this month that she would not unveil a bill before the month of August. break.

"Clearly, time is running out," said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Republican in power of Schakowsky's Consumer Protection Subcommittee, calling the bipartisan dialogue "work in progress".

Democratic representatives Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, both representatives of Silicon Valley, are working on their own bill. Eshoo, a close ally of Pelosi, said this week that "it is essential that it be the women of Congress who represent the Valley who do it", which seems to be a blow against the efforts of members of the Energy and Energy group. Trade like Schakowsky.

Meanwhile, tech companies have continued to rack up the headlines of data privacy. Facebook alone has ruined everything from its dubious data-sharing agreements with other tech companies to its unsecure storage of hundreds of millions of passwords for its decision to pay teens for install software that allows them to spy on their phones and web activity.

Facebook is also negotiating a possible settlement with the FTC over its privacy practices, which the company says could result in a fine of up to $ 5 billion.

"We continue to try to do this, but there has not been much movement," said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat candidate for Minnesota and presidential candidate of 2020. "I think we should have had the confidentiality of the data in place years ago. "

Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.