Advertisers, business groups want 'significant changes' to data privacy bill

Business and advertising groups are demanding “significant changes” to a landmark data privacy bill slated for a markup on Thursday.

House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) last week circulated a discussion draft of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), which would allow individuals to opt out of targeted advertising, empower them to take civil action when their privacy rights are violated and replace the patchwork system of state-level data privacy legislation, among other provisions.

McMorris Rodgers described the legislation as an “opportunity for a reset” during a subcommittee markup of the bill last month.

“It gives people the right to control their personal information online, something the American people overwhelmingly want. They’re tired of having their personal information abused for profit,” McMorris Rodgers said.

But the current version of the bill “would eviscerate the modern advertising industry” and “mandate an extreme anti-consumer, anti-advertising, and anti-data privacy regime,” said Association of National Advertisers (ANA) CEO Bob Liodice and American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) CEO Marla Kaplowitz in a Monday letter to the congressional leadership, McMorris Rodgers, Pallone and committee staff first reported by Politico.

“The current draft of the APRA also fails the constitutionality test, as the proposed bans and undue restrictions would violate the First Amendment’s protections for truthful advertising, speech that both businesses have a right to speak and consumers have a right to receive,” the executives argued.

Privacy for America, a cohort of companies and trade associations including ANA and 4A’s, also sent a letter Monday to the committee leaders expressing their “strong opposition” to the bill.

The APRA would “significantly hamper” individual engagement by curbing targeted advertising, making it harder for mission-driven organizations such as churches or nonprofits to find donors or volunteers and drive up market research costs, Privacy for America argues. 

The group also alleges the bill would “severely impact and harm consumers” by making it harder for law enforcement to track fraudsters and banning advertising to minors.

“For example, the military, colleges, trade schools, and other organizations would simply be unable to find these individuals,” Privacy for America wrote.

Dozens of state business groups also sent McMorris Rodgers and Pallone a letter Monday calling for “significant changes” to the data privacy bill, arguing the APRA’s “robust private right of action” would open small businesses to frivolous class action lawsuits.

“The bill makes Main Street liable for the privacy violations of big tech companies on the theory that Main Street should police what the tech companies do on privacy even though our members are just not equipped to do that,” said the letter.

But supporters of the bipartisan, bicameral APRA say it secures key consumer data protection and child safety provisions necessary to rein in large tech companies.

“The unrestricted collection and exploitation of personal data by major tech platforms such as Google and Meta is at the root of nearly every challenge we face as conservatives,” said Kara Frederick, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Tech Policy Center, in a statement last Friday. 

“This pervasive surveillance—enabled by the extensive data harvesting capabilities of Big Tech—has given rise to a host of threats that undermine our fundamental rights and values. It’s time to put Big Tech on notice and let them know that the gravy train, built on the backs of Americans and our children, is over.”