The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) has submitted comments to the House Energy & Commerce Committee's Privacy Working Group concerning the federal comprehensive privacy and security framework. This submission responds to a request for information from the Committee, which seeks to gather insights from stakeholders on privacy perspectives and data practices.
CDT is emphasizing the importance of building on previous bipartisan efforts to develop a consensus on the essential elements of federal privacy laws. According to their comments, an effective federal privacy law should impose restrictions on the ways companies collect, use, process, and share data. The aim is to protect individuals from harms such as fraud, economic injury, discrimination, reputational harm, harassment, and government surveillance that bypasses the Fourth Amendment and other legal safeguards.
Additionally, CDT highlights the need for any modern privacy framework to take into account the increasing use of artificial intelligence, especially in automated decision-making systems. They argue for the necessity of meaningful transparency and measures that require companies to routinely evaluate their data practices, mitigating potential risks to consumers.
According to CDT, safeguarding privacy will enhance consumer trust within the data-centric economy, subsequently fostering increased innovation.