Bipartisan Privacy Bill Of Rights Act Introduced In Senate

Last Tuesday, U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011 which is intended to "establish a regulatory framework for the comprehensive protection of personal data for individuals under the aegis of the Federal Trade Commission." According to the bill, current laws at the state and federal level provide inadequate privacy protection for individuals and the Federal Government has "eschewed general commercial privacy laws in favor of industry self-regulation" which has largely been unenforceable and has provided insufficient privacy protections.

If enacted, the law would direct the FTC, within specified timeframes, to make rules requiring "covered entities" - those that collect, use, transfer or store "covered information" of more than 5,000 individuals over any consecutive 12-month period - to comply with a host of new requirements protecting the security of the information as well as the