ANA Opposes American Data Privacy and Protection Act as Currently Written, Looks Forward to Continuing to Work with Congress
ANA Opposes American Data Privacy and Protection Act as Currently Written, Looks Forward to Continuing to Work with Congress
Washington, D.C. (July 20, 2022) - Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADDPA) out of Committee. ANA’s EVP & Head of Government Relations, Christopher Oswald, reacted with the following statement:
“The ANA supports a comprehensive privacy bill that sets strong baseline privacy protections for consumers and establishes a national standard for businesses to continue to grow, innovate, and create valuable new ad-supported services. Unfortunately, the bill just approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee fails to achieve those objectives.
Most notably, the bill would prohibit companies from collecting and using basic demographic and online activity data for typical and responsible advertising purposes, thus slashing advertising revenue, hurting small businesses, and jeopardizing popular ad-supported digital services, all with little to no consumer benefit. Without ongoing advertising revenue, many popular free and low-cost digital services will be forced to introduce new fees or raise prices, thus exacerbating the current financial pressures faced by millions of American families.
Further, by stretching the definition of "sensitive covered data" beyond its rational meaning to include demographic and online activity data, the amended bill would dilute its protection of actual sensitive data categories like precise geolocation, health, and biometric information, where violations can cause significant consumer harm. The bill also has other significant flaws, including a private right of action, the lack of a robust federal preemption, and the delegation of enforcement to select state agencies.
In short, there still is a long way to go toward enacting effective and comprehensive privacy legislation, and we look forward to working with Congress to improve this legislation to reach that goal.”
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ABOUT THE ANA
The ANA’s (Association of National Advertisers) mission is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.
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