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

  • laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • chart with ascending bars and two silhouetted figures observing it, set against a light background with blue and purple tones

    Report: Enterprises Are Embracing Agentic AI

    According to a new report from SnapLogic, 50% of enterprises are already deploying AI agents, and another 32% plan to do so within the next 12 months..

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • student using a tablet with math symbols dissolving into a glowing AI

    Survey: Students Say AI Use Can Reduce Math Anxiety

    In a recent survey, 56% of high school students said that the use of artificial intelligence can go a long way toward reducing math anxiety.