Four Democratic senators have rolled out a bill to provide better protection of personal data, but analysts say the partisan effort to rein in the power of Silicon Valley suggests a divided Congress is even less likely to find common ground before the 2020 election.
Pressure on tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon has grown in the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal and other Silicon Valley foul-ups in which the personal information of millions of Americans has been exposed.
Yet analysts have warned throughout the year that bipartisan agreement on data privacy seemed unlikely because of a split over the potential for federal preemption of state laws and other contentious issues. They reiterated that view on Tuesday.
The new bill, called the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act, is “just the latest indication that talks between committee Republicans and Democrats have stalled to the point where Democrats feel they need to demonstrate action,” said Beacon Policy Advisors analysts in a note. The measure “will likely throw yet another wrench in the yearlong effort to pass bipartisan data privacy legislation before the 2020 elections.”
Related: GOP senator raises concerns over data-protection rules hurting small businesses
The bill, which was unveiled last week, would require companies to tell users what personal information has been gathered. Users also would be able to find out which third parties have received their information and get it deleted. Other provisions of the bill call for creating a new privacy-focused bureau at the Federal Trade Commission as well as fining violators up to $1,000 per violation per day.
The measure is sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, one of the Democratic Party’s 16 presidential hopefuls. They are all members of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is slated to hold a hearing on Wednesday on privacy legislation.
Any nationwide privacy law would follow the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation that took effect last year and recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act. Other lawmakers also have introduce data-privacy bills, such as Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
Facebook and Amazon this year are on track to set new annual records in their spending to lobby Washington, as Big Tech deals with privacy concerns, antitrust probes and other headwinds.
Tech stocks largely have outperformed in 2019 even with the increased scrutiny from government. Facebook’s stock FB, -0.96% has gained 52% this year, Amazon.com AMZN, -1.07% has advanced 18%, Apple AAPL, -1.16% is up 68%, and Google parent Alphabet GOOG, -1.15% GOOGL, -1.17% is higher by 24%. Meanwhile, the broad S&P 500 index SPX, -0.86% has added 24%.
