Last month, Connecticut became the fifth state to pass a comprehensive consumer data privacy law. As more states appear poised to follow suit, America’s digital economy is increasingly threatened by regulatory fragmentation. If Congress were to pass federal data privacy legislation, it should preempt this growing patchwork of state laws, protect consumer privacy and promote technological innovation.
Unlike the European Union, Japan, Canada and many other advanced economies, the United States does not have a national comprehensive data privacy law. Instead, Congress has passed specific statutes to create privacy rules in particular sectors, such as education (as with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and financial services (as with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act).
But in the absence of comprehensive federal privacy law, a growing number of states have sought to create new data privacy legislation. Connecticut…
