White House is working on Federal Data Privacy Policy
The Washington Post reported that Trump administration is working on a set of data privacy protections. The report also indicated that officials of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration arranged 22 meetings with at least 80 companies and groups since last month. Four sources of Washington Post informed that companies including Google, Facebook, AT&T, and Comcast have been involved. The short-term target is to provide a data privacy proposal, including how data should be collected and managed, and what rights consumers have regarding that data. It could serve as a guide for legislators as they consider legislation. Last month, Axios reported that the White House was looking into a data privacy plan, meeting with groups like the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade group representing companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook.
The White House also arranged meetings with The Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that hosts tech CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook, IBM’s Virginia Rometty, and Verizon’s Lowell McAdam. The White House National Economic Council said that the Trump Administration aims to craft a consumer privacy protection policy that is the appropriate balance between privacy and prosperity. The move comes as major missteps, such as Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica debacle, have caused both consumers and lawmakers to call for more consumer control over digital data. The White House’s interest also follows the implementation of Europe’s GDPR regulations, a rigorous set of data privacy rules put into place in May. The Washington Post pointed out that consumer protections may be driving some of these White House conversations, the desire for a less aggressive set of regulations at the federal level may be contributing.