Pallone More Interested in Privacy Legislation Than Additional Tech Hearings
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., told us Tuesday he’s more interested in drafting privacy legislation than having additional tech-focused hearings. Tech is absent from the agendas for the committee’s first three hearings under Pallone.
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“We’ve learned a lot in the last few months about what needs to be done,” Pallone said. “We will have hearings, but I’m more focused on what legislation we can pass and actually protect people’s privacy.” Pallone said internet users need more protection: “We’re certainly looking at legislation.”
Privacy is “a priority of the committee,” Pallone added, saying Republicans “dropped the ball” last Congress while in charge. Senate Commerce Committee members are crafting their own privacy proposals. New Chairman (see 1901090055) Roger Wicker, R-Miss., inherited a privacy effort led by ex-Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. (see 1812200044). A bipartisan working group of Wicker, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is in the mix.
“If we weren’t in a shutdown, we might well be closer” to introducing a bill, Blumenthal told reporters Wednesday about pending legislation with Moran. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told reporters Wednesday he’s “getting close” to formally introducing his own privacy bill, which is currently a draft (see 1811010044).
Senators were asked about the impact of the government shutdown on the FTC’s privacy-related investigation of Facebook. All FTC non-merger investigations are suspended due to the lapse in funding (see 1812210048). “We want [the FTC] to be thorough,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “Hopefully, the Democrats will come to their senses, and we won’t have to worry about the shutdown impacting that.”
“The FTC needs to be operational, and tech oversight needs to be operational,” Schatz told us. “The longer this shutdown goes, the deeper and broader the consequences are for regular people.” Wicker told us he didn’t “necessarily” expect a conclusion to the Facebook probe by now.
Congress needs to find common ground and end the shutdown, incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters. Calling the border situation a national emergency, as suggested by President Donald Trump, is not “my preferred route,” he said. “I don’t know legally if he can do that. I think that’s a fallback position. The best way is for Congress to come together.”
Facebook plans a series of “public discussion[s] about the future of technology in society” in 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday. Every “few weeks,” Facebook’s chief will speak with “leaders, experts” and community members, to be posted on Facebook, Instagram or other media, he said.
Privacy is a rare opportunity for congressional consensus, wrote ex-Commerce Department General Counsel Cameron Kerry, who helped craft the Obama administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. In Monday's Brookings Institution blog post, highlighted by the group Wednesday, he said that “emerging bills and the various frameworks and comments reflect a clear move toward shifting the burden onto companies to handle data fairly.”
Privacy regulation won’t stimulate innovation, people don’t necessarily own data about themselves, and using regulation to support “unjustified” fears isn't good public policy, blogged Mark Jamison for the American Enterprise Institute. He said others should dispel myths concerning those three topics when discussing privacy.