Published: February 2014

Two years later - where’s the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights?

Coalition: Privacy Coalition

Two years ago President Obama made an important commitment to introduce privacy legislation. Today, industry self-regulation has failed and opt-out techniques force consumers to check their privacy settings every time a company changes its business model. These are not reasonable consumer privacy protections.

In a letter to President Obama, Consumer Action joined privacy advocates in urging the President and Congress to update federal privacy laws. The letter arrived two years after the president announced a proposal to protect Americans online. While news of major credit card data breaches and reports of wide-scale NSA civilian survelliance have bombarded global headlines, private companies are able to compile digital dosiers on consumers like never before. The time is now to implement long-term, enforceable legislation in order to protect consumers' privacy.

Marc Rotenberg, a Georgetown University Law School professor who directs the Electronic Privacy Information Center explains “given what we have now learned about the scope of surveillance and the absence of meaningful safeguards, this should now be a top priority for the administration.”

 

 

 

Lead Organization

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Other Organizations

Advocacy for Principled Action in Government American Civil Liberties Union | American Library Association | Association of Research Libraries | Berkeley Media Studies Group | Bill of Rights Defense Committee | Campaign for Commercial-­‐Free Childhood Center for Digital Democracy | Center for Media Justice | Children Now | Color of Change | Common Sense Media | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Consumer Watchdog | Consumers Union | Defending Dissent Foundation | Demand Progress | Doctor Patient Medical Association Electronic Frontier Foundation | Electronic Privacy Information Center | Free Press | Government Accountability Project Knowledge Ecology International | Media Alliance | Media Literacy Project | NAACP | National Association of Consumer Advocates National Lawyers Guild | National Network to End Domestic Violence National Workrights Institute | Patient Privacy Rights | Pediatrics Now | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse | Privacy Times | Public Citizen, Inc. | Public Health Advocacy Institute Public Health Institute | Public Knowledge | U.S. Public Interest Research Group Virginia Citizens Consumer Council

More Information

To read the entire letter to President Obama, please click here.

For more information on consumer privacy, please visit EPIC's website.

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