House Energy and Commerce Committee Introduces Package of Bipartisan Privacy Bills

Last week, to mark National Consumer Protection Week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced four major privacy bills. The bills deal with data security, spyware, pretexting, and social security number protection, and include:   

• S. 958; The Data Accountability and Trust Act (DATA Act), which requires companies to adopt reasonable security policies and procedures to protect consumers' information, and requires notice in the event of a security breach. 
• S. 964; The Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY ACT), which prohibits the surreptitious downloading of spyware to computers and the collection of consumer information without consent. 
• S. 936; The Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act, which prohibits fraudulent access to consumer phone records. 
• S. 948; The Social Security Number Protection Act of 2007, which limits the sale and purchase of social security numbers. 

It is important to note that all of these bills have bipartisan support. Some are similar versions to bills that were introduced last year when the Republicans controlled the committee. The committee has not yet scheduled mark-ups for these bills, but with the level of support each one of these proposals has, this probably will happen soon. 

If you have any questions, please contact Dan Jaffe in ANA's Washington, D.C. office at 202.296.2359 or at djaffe@ana.net.