“The Texas Privacy Council should be mindful of unintended side effects of a legislative approach that places unreasonable restrictions on digital advertising and relies too heavily on opt-in consent; instead of burdening consumers, have strong data privacy protections based on a clear set of prohibited practices that put consumers at actual and concrete risk.”
Relevance to Business Activities:
· data governance and privacy notice considerations:
o legislation:
§ the Council should be mindful:
§ of unintended side effects from any legislative approach in Texas:
§ such as placing unreasonable restrictions on digital advertising
– such an outcome would detrimentally impact both:
§ consumers who demand ad-supported digital content; and
§ businesses who provide these products and services.
§ that there are already several privacy protections afforded through federal legislation, including:
§ COPPA;
§ HIPAA;
§ FCRA;
§ GLBA; and
§ VPPA.
§ it is inherent that reasonable practices are permitted:
§ while helping prevent unreasonable practices to protect consumers from concrete harms.
§ any laws enacted to supplement these federal sectoral regimes should:
§ clearly define and prohibit practices that put consumers at actual and concrete risks;
and
§ preserve the benefits to individuals and the economy that result from the responsible use of data.
o opt-in consent:
§ proposals relying too heavily on opt-in consent for data collection would unfairly shift the privacy burden to consumers:
§ who should not be tasked with deciphering data-sharing arrangements prior to reading digital content or downloading an app.
§ consumers should instead be able to rely on strong data privacy protections based on a clear set of prohibited practices;
§ there is a need to distinguish sensitive personal data from other data that drives digital advertising and poses less privacy risks; and
§ no other State has yet enacted a comprehensive data privacy law requiring consumers to opt in to business processing or uses of all personal information:
§ calls for Texas to be the first State to adopt such a restricted approach should be rejected.