Witnesses at a Senate hearing today strongly urged lawmakers to enact comprehensive privacy legislation, calling for robust protections for individuals and clear regulatory guidelines for businesses as they develop and deploy artificial intelligence systems.
During today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, experts and advocates testified that the absence of stringent privacy laws threatens personal data security and ethical AI practices, stressing the need for legislative action to safeguard privacy rights and establish transparent frameworks for the development of AI systems.
“A Federal data privacy law, especially one with strong data minimization, could act as a foundational intervention to break this cycle and challenge the culture of impunity and recklessness that is hurting both consumers and competition,” said Amba Kak, the co-executive director at the AI Now Institute.
Kak emphasized that the trajectory of AI is at a crucial inflection point and the lack of any regulatory intervention could result in “the extractive, invasive, and often harmful data practices and business models that have characterized the past decade of the tech industry.”
Ryan Calo, a Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor of Law at the University of Washington, echoed Kak’s urgent tone explaining that comprehensive privacy legislation is long overdue. Calo said that while individual states and other countries roll out new standards to protect personal data, the United States lags.
“Federal consumer privacy legislation is long overdue. The question is not whether America should have rules governing privacy. The question is why we still do not,” said Calo. “Americans are not receiving the privacy protections they demand or deserve … Privacy rules are long overdue. But the acceleration of AI over the past few years threatens to turn a bad situation into a dire one.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., highlighted pending legislation, which she co-sponsors with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., that could lead to comprehensive privacy safeguards.
The American Privacy Rights Act aims to enhance consumer control over personal data by introducing measures such as allowing users to opt out of targeted advertising and data transfers, establishing a private right of action for financial damages, and preempting existing state privacy laws.
The bill was set for a markup in the House last month but was abruptly postponed after facing significant opposition from House GOP leaders.
Additionally, Calo suggested that Congress reestablish the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) to help lawmakers anticipate and understand emerging technologies and make wiser decisions around them.
