ACA International is advocating for legislation that protects consumers’ data and privacy rights but doesn’t create duplicative burdens on top of existing federal requirements and state and global directives.
9/22/2020 14:00
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will meet Wednesday to discuss federal data privacy legislation. ACA International, in a letter to the committee, is advocating for data privacy legislation that balances the need to protect consumers’ privacy and not creative duplicative requirements given existing complex state and global directives the accounts receivable management industry is required to comply with.
“ACA members support data privacy, but do not believe duplicative burdens are necessary or beneficial to consumers and the economy,” CEO Mark Neeb said in the letter.
ACA highlighted complexities in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and urged the U.S. Congress to consider creating federal data privacy legislation. (Listen to our latest episode of ACA Cast about the CCPA here.)
In addition to complying with the CCPA, businesses are already bracing for new complications that would likely stem from the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), a statewide ballot initiative that will be decided on Nov. 3, 2020. This new initiative, which comes just three months after the enforcement of the CCPA began, would impact businesses across the country.
During the hearing, “Revisiting the Need for Federal Data Privacy Legislation,” the committee will examine the current state of consumer data privacy and legislative efforts to provide baseline data protections for all Americans. The committee will also review lessons learned from the implementation of state privacy laws in the U.S. and the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation, as well as how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected data privacy.
Witnesses include:
- Julie Brill, former commissioner, Federal Trade Commission;
- William Kovacic, former chairman and commissioner, Federal Trade Commission;
- Jon Leibowitz, former chairman and commissioner, Federal Trade Commission;
- Maureen Ohlhausen, former commissioner and acting chairman, Federal Trade Commission.
The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 23, and will be streaming live on the committee’s website.
“We appreciate that Congress is revisiting this important issue,” Neeb said. “We ask that the Senate consider some of the problems stemming from unclear requirements of the CCPA and ensure that any law going forward preempts state requirements. All Americans should receive the same level of privacy protections.”