It’s turning into the Year of the Privacy Bill, with several proposals to protect consumer data already released by lawmakers and outside groups. But even with widespread concerns about the sharing of consumer data by companies like Facebook, it’s unlikely that a comprehensive privacy bill will make it through Congress.
Prompted by Facebook’s data sharing and mobile carriers’ selling of customer geolocation data, privacy advocates have renewed their push for a comprehensive privacy law. Some lawmakers have been pushing similar legislation for years, with no success.
“There is more appetite for privacy legislation this year, but that doesn’t mean those old bills will likely see much traction,” said Daniel Castro, vice president at Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a tech-focused think tank.
Many Republicans in Congress are wary of passing strong privacy regulations that limit tech firms and other companies from exploring new business models and from offering free services in exchange for personal information.
A successful privacy bill would improve consumer privacy, “but not at the expense of consumer welfare,” Castro said.
“It remains to be seen whether Congress can put together a bipartisan proposal that offers real improvements for consumers without bogging down the digital economy with European-style regulations.”

The chances of a comprehensive privacy bill passing aren’t good, added Dylan Gilbert, a policy fellow at Public Knowledge, a privacy and digital rights group. But privacy advocates are making some progress on proposals such as giving the Federal Trade Commission privacy rulemaking authority, he said.
Several major disagreements remain to be resolved, such as whether a federal law should preempt state privacy laws that, in some cases, would offer more consumer protections than federal legislation. In 2018, the California State Legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which, when it goes into effect in 2020, will require most businesses to tell consumers what they’re doing with their data and allow consumers to opt out of data-sharing agreements between businesses.
Several states may follow California’s lead by introducing their own privacy legislation early this year, said Michelle Richardson, director of the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights group.
“The more state laws that pass, the more they conflict with each other,” she said. “And the more interest there is to pass a federal solution, to create a single federal standard.”
The preemption issue has divided Congress and the tech industry, “and stakeholders have their heels dug in pretty deep on some of these devilish details,” Gilbert said. Still, the looming California law “has set a sort of shot clock in the mind of certain lawmakers for crafting and passing federal legislation.”