Democratic U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren have announced the Online Privacy Act, a proposal that would create a federal enforcement agency to protect privacy rights.
“The bill proposes the creation of the Digital Privacy Agency (DPA) that would have the power to enforce privacy rights for users and make sure companies follow the law. The independent agency would be funded for up to 1,600 employees and could impose damages up to the same maximum amount as the FTC’s, which is $42,530 per incident, according to a fact sheet from the representatives’ offices.”
Key provisions include:
- individuals’ right to access, correct, delete and transfer data about them
- right to choose for how long a company can keep the data
- right to request “human review of impactful automated decisions”
- opt-in consent for users’ data to be used for machine learning or artificial intelligence algorithms
- obtain consent to disclose or sell personal information
- prohibition from using “dark patterns” that can mislead users into providing consent