Privacy Legislation Might Have Stopped Facebook

In the aftermath of an extensive New York Times investigation into Facebook’s data privacy regulations and whether the company violated the privacy and public policy regulations of the Federal Trade Commission, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) said that it is time for her colleagues to step up. During an NPR interview, Sen. Klobuchar talked about commonsense legislation that she and Sen. John Kennedy (La.) had introduced in April. Since then, however, "Congress has been paralyzed. Nothing has been happening. Whether it's because of lobbying, whether it's because of the complexity of this, we just have to put all that aside and move," she said. Three key parts of the legislation included using plain language so that it is clear a user is making a decision to share personal data; granting individuals greater control over their data by allowing them to opt out of any sharing arrangements; and mandating that users be notified of any privacy breach.