Skip to main content

White House held 22 meetings with more than 80 organizations to discuss federal privacy law

It was last month said that the White House was considering options for introducing a federal privacy law along the lines of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) …

The Washington Post today reports that this has been progressed, the administration holding 22 meetings with more than 80 companies, trade associations and consumer groups.

Over the past month, the Commerce Department has been huddling with representatives of tech giants such as Facebook and Google, Internet providers including AT&T and Comcast, and consumer advocates, according to four people familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak on the record.

The government’s goal is to release an initial set of ideas this fall that outlines Web users’ rights, including general principles for how companies should collect and handle consumers’ private information, the people said. The forthcoming blueprint could then become the basis for Congress to write the country’s first wide-ranging online-privacy law, an idea the White House recently has said it could endorse.

A spokesperson for President Trump said that the administration wanted to achieve ‘the appropriate balance between privacy and prosperity.’

GDPR provides no fewer than 99 separate protections for personal data, with four key principles. Apple has said that it plans to extend GDPR-standard protections to its customers in the US and elsewhere, and other companies have made similar, though often vaguer, statements.


Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel