(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The American Data Privacy and Protection Act, which is allegedly a bill to increase online privacy and data security, appears to have allocated money to organizations gathering data for the government.
According to The Daily Wire, the bill would adopt “data minimization” tactics toward collecting user information so only “reasonably necessary and proportionate” information would be taken.
This would include information such as user authentication, fraud prevention and transaction execution. The bill advanced out of the House’s bipartisan Energy and Commerce Committee at the end of July.
The legislators who wrote the bill claimed that the legislation “puts people back in control of their online data.” However, the current version allows government agencies—and people or businesses working on their behalf—to still “collect, process, or transfer” relevant data.
Progressive nonprofit Consumer Watchdog provided The Daily Wire with a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pointing out that the upcoming bill is weaker than the California Consumer Privacy Act and would supersede existing law.
“A major loophole in the ADPPA allows companies who contract with government entities for data collection to avoid its protections,” the group’s letter explained. “In contrast, under California law, companies that contract with the government are covered businesses that must comply with the law.
“Sensitive personal information residents choose to protect from companies and the government under the CCPA would be exposed under the ADPPA,” the letter continued. “That means unfettered access by governments to mass data collection by tech companies like Google.”
The letter went on, explaining that purchasing data also makes easy for the government to work around constitutional protections which would requite them to seek approval through warrants, and is incredibly difficult to track.
The American Data Privacy and Protection Act does not ban targeted advertisements online, but does ban advertising directed toward children or based on “sensitive covered data,” such as health information and precise locations.
