OTI Supports ADPPA, Urges House Vote on Badly Needed Privacy Legislation

Today, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) joined over 45 civil rights, privacy, and consumer organizations in calling for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a vote on H.R. 8152, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). OTI supports the ADPPA and urges members of Congress to vote for its passage.

The ADPPA would greatly increase protections for consumer privacy, including by implementing stronger data minimization requirements, limiting the ability of companies to use the data they do collect, and creating special protections for sensitive data like biometric information and precise geolocation data. It also expands provisions to protect children’s privacy online, including increasing coverage to minors under the age of 17—protecting significantly more kids than both the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and existing federal law. ADPPA provides increased enforcement authority to the FTC by establishing a new privacy bureau, and also includes a private right of action allowing consumers to bring civil action against a covered entity for alleged violations of their privacy rights.

There is a clear need for comprehensive privacy legislation, supported by legislators on both sides of the aisle, as consumers continue to face misuse of their personal data and violations of their civil rights. The current patchwork of state-level privacy legislation does not provide adequate protections for all U.S. users, and this bill is a hard-fought compromise that takes an important step toward rectifying that problem.

The ADPPA is the best opportunity we have had (and likely will have in the near future) to pass badly needed comprehensive consumer privacy reform. The bill is bipartisan and has greatly improved since its original announcement back in May 2022. We urge members to seize this chance to meaningfully change how we protect privacy in this country and pass the American Data Privacy and Protection Act.