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Privacy & Data

What’s the Diff? CDT Comparison Chart on Current Privacy Bills

Two weeks ago, CDT President Leslie Harris testified before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection on the two privacy bills currently being debated in Washington:  the BEST PRACTICES bill from Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush and a draft bill from Congressmen Rick Boucher and Cliff Stearns.  During her testimony, Harris promised that CDT would publish a comparison chart on the two bills.  Today, CDT is releasing that chart, which analyzes both bills in detail and provides recommendations for reconciling them.

Both bills are pretty detailed, and we hope this chart makes clear how each would implement the Fair Information Practice principles as a baseline standard.  In general, CDT supports how the BEST PRACTICES bill has built on the initial Boucher-Stearns draft to lay out a flexible, but comprehensive privacy framework.  We recommend some revisions, but overall we are enthusiastic about the BEST PRACTICES bill, and we look forward to working with the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as with the Senate Commerce Committee, on enacting baseline privacy legislation.