United States of America: Introduction of Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act in US House

On 11 March 2021, House Rep. Suzan DeBene introduced a comprehensive data protection bill into the US House of Representatives (H.R.1816 - Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act). If passed, the bill would protect sensitive personal information regarding its collection, processing and sharing. The bill defines sensitive personal information to include financial information, information about sex, orientations and beliefs, government identifiers, precise geolocation data as well as call, app use or web browsing histories, while publicly available data is not considered sensitive. Processors of such data must obtain affirmative consent from users, draft an understandablea privacy and data use policy , give users the ability to opt-out of the data sharing and undergo a privacy audit every two years. Under the bill, the Federal Trade Commission would receive additional rulemaking authority to secure and enforce the stated objectives, along with 500 new employees working on data security.