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Sen. Ron Wyden Introduces Bill That Would Send CEOs to Jail for Violating Consumer Privacy

posted by takyon on Friday November 02 2018, @11:44PM   
from the too-big-to-jail dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Sen. Ron Wyden Introduces Bill That Would Send CEOs to Jail for Violating Consumer Privacy

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has introduced a comprehensive new privacy bill he claims will finally address the lack of meaningful privacy protections for American consumers.

Wyden says his Consumer Data Protection Act is a direct response to the ocean of privacy scandals that have plagued the internet for the better part of the last decade.

The Senator's proposal would dramatically beef up Federal Trade Commission authority and funding to crack down on privacy violations, let consumers opt out of having their sensitive personal data collected and sold, and impose harsh new penalties on a massive data monetization industry that has for years claimed that self-regulation is all that's necessary to protect consumer privacy.

Wyden's bill proposes that companies whose revenue exceeds $1 billion per year—or warehouse data on more than 50 million consumers or consumer devices—submit "annual data protection reports" to the government detailing all steps taken to protect the security and privacy of consumers' personal information.

The proposed legislation would also levy penalties up to 20 years in prison and $5 million in fines for executives who knowingly mislead the FTC in these reports. The FTC's authority over such matters is currently limited—one of the reasons telecom giants have been eager to move oversight of their industry from the Federal Communications Commission to the FTC.

Also at ZDNet, and The Hill.

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Original Submission

• exempt exempt (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 03 2018, @01:24AM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 03 2018, @01:24AM (#757151)

  Does it include exemptions for Israeli companies? He also cosponsored a bill that would put you in prison for boycotting Israeli companies.

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• Re:exempt Re:exempt (Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday November 03 2018, @06:05AM (1 child)

  by crafoo (6639) on Saturday November 03 2018, @06:05AM (#757206)

  Is this true? I couldn't find any reference to the bill. Which was it? It's damning if it's true. A gross perversion of government power if it were to ever pass and be enforced.

  It's too bad. Ron did good things on the security council (unlike Feistein), commenting sometime before the Wikileaks event that if the population knew what the NSA/FBI/CIA were up to we would be up in arms. Sadly, he seems to have overestimated us.

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  • Re:exempt (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 03 2018, @06:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 03 2018, @06:39AM (#757208)

    https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/720 [congress.gov]

    This bill declares that Congress: (1) opposes the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution of March 24, 2016, which urges countries to pressure companies to divest from, or break contracts with, Israel; and (2) encourages full implementation of the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 through enhanced, governmentwide, coordinated U.S.-Israel scientific and technological cooperation in civilian areas.

    The bill amends the Export Administration Act of 1979 to declare that it shall be U.S. policy to oppose:

            requests by foreign countries to impose restrictive practices or boycotts against other countries friendly to the United States or against U.S. persons; and
            restrictive trade practices or boycotts fostered or imposed by an international governmental organization, or requests to impose such practices or boycotts, against Israel.

    The bill prohibits any U.S. person engaged interstate or foreign commerce from supporting:

            any request by a foreign country to impose any boycott against a country that is friendly to the United States and that is not itself the object of any form of boycott pursuant to United States law or regulation, or
            any boycott fostered or imposed by any international governmental organization against Israel or any request by any international governmental organization to impose such a boycott.

    The bill amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to include as a reason for the Export-Import Bank to deny credit applications for the export of goods and services between the United States and foreign countries, opposition to policies and actions that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize or otherwise limit commercial relations specifically with citizens or residents of Israel, entities organized under the laws of Israel, or the government of Israel.

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