By Jennifer K. Wagner<\/p>\n
While the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, which gave us excitement in June 2022 (as we discussed on this blog)<\/a> did not make it across the finish line, this year much excitement has been generated by the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The APRA is a bicameral and bipartisan effort to modernize the federal privacy law protections for Americans.\u00a0 Introduced<\/a> on April 7, 2024 by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who are the Chairs of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, respectively, this discussion draft<\/a> offers comprehensive data privacy protections. A legislative hearing<\/a> was held on April 17, 2024 in the House, with recognized consensus that \u201c[t]his is Congress\u2019s best chance to establish comprehensive data privacy protections.\u201d<\/a> Full Committee markup of the bill was announced<\/a> on June 25, 2024, but that action was delayed after some dramatic opposition was voiced.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Opposition came from 55 civil society organizations\u2014led by The Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union\u2014in a letter<\/a> emphasizing, \u201cPrivacy rights and civil rights are no longer separate concepts \u2014 they are inextricably bound together and must be protected.\u201d The groups called for restoration of civil rights protections and algorithmic auditing provisions that had been previously considered and for a delay to enable \u201cgreater stakeholder consultation.\u201d Earlier opposition had come from a group of states led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta (joined by offices of the attorney general in Pennsylvania as well as Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, and Vermont along with the office of consumer protection from Hawaii), who sent a letter criticizing<\/a> the bill for its provision that would preempt state law and noting concern that the bill could \u201cundermine protections that states have already established.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While it is reasonable to think that little will get done during a Presidential election year, privacy law reform is unquestionably an issue of the utmost priority for Congress. Moreover, time is of the essence, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly advances. That sentiment came from Senator Cantwell in September during remarks she gave as keynote speaker for Forum Global\u2019s 6th<\/sup> Annual Data Privacy Conference. Senator Cantwell underscored, \u201cAI brings us to an inflection point, whether we can establish the ground rules or really leave consumers defenseless.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we watch to see when and how APRA develops in the weeks ahead (including how markups might change current drafts), two useful resources for understanding the bill\u2019s provisions include the Legal Sidebar<\/a> (LSB11161) on the APRA published in May by the Congressional Research Service and the “American Privacy Rights Act Cheat Sheet”<\/a> published by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) in May and most recently updated in June.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jennifer K. Wagner, J.D., Ph.D., is a solo practicing attorney and also is Assistant Professor of Law, Policy, and Engineering and Anthropology at Penn State University. She has been a member of the PBA Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Committee since 2018, is a former contributing editor of the Genomics Law Report, and has published scholarly articles in prominent legal and scientific journals, including the Journal of Law & Biosciences; Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics; Albany Law Journal of Science & Technology; Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal; North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology; Science; Nature Communications; Nature Medicine; American Journal of Human Genetics; Human Genetics and Genomics Advances; Genetics in Medicine; and PLOS Genetics. She served as a AAAS Congressional Fellow in a U.S. Senator\u2019s office in 2014-2015, and her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States. You may follow her on several social media platforms as @DNAlawyer. Views expressed are her own.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jennifer K. Wagner While the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, which gave us excitement in June 2022 (as we discussed on this blog) did not make it across the finish line, this year much excitement has been generated by the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA). The APRA is a bicameral and bipartisan
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