On Tuesday, Democratic senators unveiled a new online privacy bill, the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA), that could seriously strengthen protections for digital consumers. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state compared the proposed legislation’s purpose to “Miranda rights” for our digital existence. While online privacy (and how much power Big Tech should have) is certainly not a new topic in the Senate or the House, bipartisan efforts to reach agreement on the subject haven’t been successful. Cantwell, who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, hopes to establish important protections with her proposed bill.
“You have to start saying these aspects of your life belong to you, and you have the right to decide how they’re used,” Cantwell told The Washington Post.
The bill would offer internet users the opportunity to request their sensitive personal information from companies that have collected it. They would then have the right to ask for that data to be corrected or outright deleted. Companies would not be allowed to collect more information than they actually need. If they did, they would face large fines and penalties.
What would this look like? Data such as your location or facial scan, for instance, could not be collected or shared by apps without your explicit permission. If a third party has accessed your personal information and you are not okay with it, you could contact them and have them delete it. The proposed bill would allow people to prevent the sale of personal information that has been stockpiled by companies.
Another stipulation in the bill is that once a year company CEOs would have to certify to the Federal Trade Commission that they are using the appropriate “internal controls” to comply with the law.
The bill permits states to enact their own privacy laws. This is likely to receive some backlash from Big Tech, which generally prefers one federal privacy law to apply to all the states. Notably, this bill also allows citizens to initiate their own lawsuits against online businesses. Another provision of the bill calls for the formation of a new bureau within the Federal Trade Commission directly focused on privacy. The bill calls for that new bureau to be fully operational within two years of its creation.
In addition to Cantwell, the bill is sponsored by 2020 presidential hopeful and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, and Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, all members of the Senate Commerce Committee. At this point, the bill is sponsored only by Democrats.