Senate Banking Committee Considers Testimony On Privacy And Data Collection

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs considered testimony on the collection, use, and protection of personally identifiable information in light of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). GDPR enumerates rights to privacy notices, data access, data rectification, objection to processing, the withdrawal of consent for processing, objection to automated processing, data erasure and data portability.

Peter H. Chase, Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, stated that GDPR was created to enforce a single approach to data protection, rather than a sectoral one, and to address the monetization of personal data. He stated GDPR emphasizes activities concerning large amounts of personal data, and said that while GDPR is "very prescriptive," few data processing activities are prohibited. He also noted that Data Protection Authorities will have discretion over how they handle complaints.