U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), ranking member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, on July 10 provided committee members with details for guiding the draft of his forthcoming online consumer data protection legislation.
“My goal is to establish robust privacy rights and protections that are much more flexible and adaptive to the rapidly evolving online ecosystem than new governmental regulatory and enforcement regimes could ever be,” Rep. Collins said. “The American people don’t need new government bureaucracies and agency-imposed regulatory schemes to control their online lives.”
The overall proposal that Rep. Collins will release also would establish privacy protections for online users, according to the Judiciary Committee.
“The private sector and the government must recognize consumer data as the property of the consumer,” Rep. Collins said. “When consumers generate data, they should have a powerful voice in who gets to use it, how much of it is used and under what conditions. Since it’s their property, consumers should also determine how much privacy they want surrounding their data.”
Rep. Collins highlighted several other principles to guide the bill’s draft, including to create a federally recognized class of online data property that includes data consumers generate on online platforms and devices, according to a committee statement.
“Congress should empower people to protect their data and their privacy as their own property,” said the lawmaker. “Once people have that ability, it is my hope and expectation that online service providers will respond by innovating new and better means of servicing consumers that don’t threaten to over-intrude on consumers’ data privacy in the first place.”
Collins also asked for input from congressional members, industry representatives and other stakeholders.
“We, as Congress, should promote strong legislation to protect consumers’ rights to their data and ensure consumers know how their data is used commercially,” he said.