Washington Indivisible Federal Privacy “one-pager”

Presented at a briefing on September 14 to staffers of several members of Washington state’s congressional delegation. As a PDF, it really does fit on a single page!

STRENGTHEN American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) (H.R. 8152)

Push for improvements and House floor vote in September. See below for specifics.
If these improvements are not possible, please vote no if there is a House floor vote.

SUPPORT Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act (S. 1265)

Cosponsor, push for markup in House Judiciary and House floor vote in September

SUPPORT My Body My Data (H.R. 8111) & Health and Location Data Privacy Act (S. 4408)

Cosponsor, push for hearing, markup, and floor vote in September

Key improvements needed in ADPPA

A floor, not a ceiling: no preemption of stronger state and local laws

Ensure ADPPA protects pregnant people and LGBTAIQ2S+ people

Ensure ADPPA protects immigrants, people of color, activists, and other groups most at risk from data abuse and surveillance

Remove loopholes and exemptions, including

• Remove exemptions for employee data, de-identified data, data inferred from public data, and government contractors acting as service providers
• Expand sensitive data to include all location and biometric data; sexual orientiation, gender idenity, and gender expression; immigration status; family and social relationships; data on employer-provided machines
• Tighten overly-broad permissible purposes and duty of loyalty exceptions

Add accountability to make civil rights protections real, including

• Add whistleblower protections
• Add right to opt out of profiling (an improved version of California’s)
• Strengthen algorithmic impact assessments; restore requirement for external, independent auditors or researchers; require transparency; add specificity using language from the Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2022; follow recommendations in Algorithmic Justice League’s Who Audits the Auditors

Strengthen enforcement, including

• Ensure FTC has necessary funding and authority
• Allow FCC to enforce law and don’t give telecoms free pass on $200 million fines
• Remove barriers to state AG enforcement and private right of action
• Remove forced arbitration and right to cure
• Add statutory damages

No “pay for privacy” schemes. Privacy is a fundamental right for everybody.

References

• Bipartisan Support for Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act at House Judiciary Hearing, Tech Policy Press
• Washington Indivisibles’ June 13 letter to Rep. McMorris Rodgers and Sen. Cantwell
• AG Ferguson’s June 24 letter and AG coalition July 19 letter
• EFF’s Americans Deserve More Than The Current ADPPA and June 13 letter
• Californians for Consumer Privacy comparisons and side-by-side with CA’s law

Federal Privacy Reading List has additional links on other topics