Republican members of the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee formally introduced legislation on May 7,
2020, to give Americans more control over and insight into how
their personal health, proximity and geolocation data is used
during the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. The bill's
introduction reflects the growing number of privacy and
surveillance concerns during the public health emergency as the
industry develops their own standards for how they will conduct
contact tracing and other efforts to slow the spread of the
virus.
The measure, the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act, is
sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and
Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
