Senators urge Commerce Department to include Congress in consumer-privacy work

A bipartisan group of senators urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday to include Congress in the agency’s efforts to craft a consumer-privacy blueprint.

The White House began discussions on such a framework earlier this year with key industry groups eager to advance a federal standard. The European Union implemented a sweeping privacy law in May that requires companies to, among other things, get customers’ permission before tapping their personal information for ad campaigns, and California passed its own legislation in June.