Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Next Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will host a bipartisan legislative hearing on multiple data privacy and transparency bills, including two pieces of legislation introduced by Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the Committee’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee.

“Americans are sick and tired of their data being harvested, sold, and used against them online without any rules or repercussions. It’s long past time to protect people’s privacy and give them power over their own data,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “The DELETE Act and the TLDR Act will achieve that goal by giving consumers the right to have data brokers delete and stop collecting their data while simultaneously simplifying and standardizing the long, complicated terms of service contracts we’re forced to sign just to use an app. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Committee to advance these bipartisan bills – either as standalone pieces of legislation or part of a bipartisan comprehensive privacy package.”

The hearing will consider Trahan’s bipartisan Data Elimination and Limiting Extensive Tracking and Exchange (DELETE) Act, which she introduced with Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11) and Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and John Ossoff (D-GA). The bicameral legislation would establish a system through which individuals could request that all data brokers delete any personal data collected by the company and prohibit future collection.

Next week’s legislative hearing will also consider Trahan’s Terms-of-service Labeling, Design and Readability (TLDR) Act, which she introduced with Senators Cassidy and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM). The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would require that online companies make their terms of service contracts more accessible, transparent, and understandable for consumers. A 2012 study found that it would take 76 work days for the average American to read the agreements for the websites and platforms they routinely use, and a 2022 poll found that nearly 9 out of every 10 Americans have agreed to a company’s terms of service without reading the contract first.

Additional proposals scheduled for consideration during the hearing include a bipartisan discussion draft of the American Privacy Rights Act, legislation that resumes the committee’s work on a comprehensive privacy bill that was advanced out of committee during the 117^th Congress.

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