Republican Senator Josh Hawley is proposing a bill that could severely limit the data collection activities of the biggest tech companies in the US like Google and Facebook.
Here is an excerpt from a report filed in Ad Age:
While Congress is debating privacy measures that could allow consumers to opt out of data collection service-by-service, Josh Hawley’s proposal would allow consumers to choose a single setting that opts out of all data collection “beyond what is indispensable to the companies’ online services,” according to a statement.
Browsers have long allowed users to send “Do Not Track” signals, but the feature is only a request and is rarely fulfilled, Hawley said in the statement. The measure would also ban companies from profiling users who activate the feature.
The bill would impose fines against companies of $1,000 per person per day for willful or reckless violations, with a minimum of $100,000, according to a spokesman for the Missouri freshman, who has been among Big Tech’s most vocal conservative critics. Hawley plans to introduce the full text on Tuesday, the spokesman said.
Data collection helps power the digital economy that many consumers rely on, from location-based services to social media sites.
Tracking users’ browsing history also lies behind the ballooning digital ad market, which is dominated by Facebook and Google. Last year, U.S. ad sales hit a record $208 billion, more than half of it online, according to researcher Magna.
Hawley has introduced legislation to expand online privacy for young people and proposals to end video game purchases that have been compared to gambling and to block Chinese acquisition of sensitive American technology. He’s also calling for “sweeping changes” for Facebook and joined Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, in calling for a Federal Trade Commission probe of Amazon.com Inc. devices.
