Common Sense Urges Congress to Uphold California Privacy Law

  • By Sara Friedman
  • 09/11/19

Common Sense wants lawmakers on Capitol Hill to reject a call from tech giants to preempt state laws that put privacy-related restrictions on the data that they collect.

"All eyes are on California when it comes to data privacy. California legislators did right by kids, families and consumers by keeping the law which goes into effect in 2020 largely intact. It's no surprise that after failing to gut the California Consumer Privacy Act tech giants are now rallying Congress to pass a federal law to preempt it," said Common Sense CEO James Steyer in a statement.

More than 50 CEOs, who are members of the CEO group Business Roundtable, sent a letter to leaders in Congress on Sept. 10 asking for a "comprehensive" federal law that would allow "new services to flourish within a well-understood legal and regulatory framework."  

The CEO group also submitted a proposed federal framework to put the responsibility of creating "robust regulations" for collection, use and sharing of personal data in the hands of the companies.

According to Steyer, Common Sense is going to urge California lawmakers to strengthen the law next year by putting "limitations on first-party data use and ensuring sufficient regulatory supports are in place to protect consumers in the vast 21st century data economy."

About the Author

Sara Friedman is a reporter/producer for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe covering education policy and a wide range of other public-sector IT topics.

Friedman is a graduate of Ithaca College, where she studied journalism, politics and international communications.

Friedman can be contacted at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @SaraEFriedman.

Click here for previous articles by Friedman.


Featured

  • Google Classroom tools

    Google Announces Classroom Updates, New Tools for Chromebooks

    Google has introduced a variety of features across its products for education, announced recently at the 2025 BETT ed tech event in London. Among the additions are enhancements to Google Classroom and new tools for Chromebooks, "designed to help address the diverse needs of students around the world," Google said in a blog post.

  • Rebind platform

    Grant Program to Give Free Access to AI-Powered Reading Platform

    E-reading publishing company Rebind has announced a new "Classics in the Classroom" grant program for United States high school and college educators, providing free access to the company's AI-powered reading platform for the Fall 2025 term.

  • group of elementary school students designing video games on computers in a modern classroom with a teacher, depicted in a geometric and abstract style

    Using Video Game Design to Teach Literacy Skills

    The Max Schoenfeld School, a public school in the Bronx serving one of the poorest communities in the nation, is taking an innovative approach to improving student literacy.

  • computer with a red warning icon on its screen, surrounded by digital grids, glowing neural network patterns, and a holographic brain

    Report Highlights Security Concerns of Open Source AI

    In these days of rampant ransomware and other cybersecurity exploits, security is paramount to both proprietary and open source AI approaches — and here the open source movement might be susceptible to some inherent drawbacks, such as use of possibly insecure code from unknown sources.