In recent months, members of Congress have introduced several bills designed to protect consumer privacy, but one senator said he believes most current legislation doesn’t go far enough. This month, Sen. Sherrod Brown has released draft legislation that would prohibit companies from collecting personal data in many cases, allowing them only to collect it when “strictly necessary.” Brown’s Data Accountability and Transparency Act would end the current privacy practices of many online companies in which they get consumers to consent to data collection described in lengthy and rarely read privacy policies.

The proposal has little chance of passing in an election year, especially when several less expansive privacy bills seem to be going nowhere. But the proposal advances the debate when it’s time for a new privacy model, Brown argued.