Washington – In a letter to congressional leaders today, Business Roundtable CEOs across industries urged policymakers to pass, as soon as possible, a comprehensive national data privacy law that strengthens protections for American consumers and establishes a framework to enable continued innovation and growth in the digital economy. The letter, signed by 51 CEOs*, was sent to House and Senate leadership and the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committees.
“Our companies reach virtually every American consumer and rely on data and digital platforms every day to deliver and improve our products and services. Consumer trust and confidence are essential to our businesses. We are committed to protecting consumer privacy and want consumers to have confidence that companies treat their personal information responsibly,” the letter reads. “We urgently need a comprehensive federal consumer data privacy law to strengthen consumer trust and establish a stable policy environment where new services and technologies can flourish within a well-understood legal and regulatory framework.”
In the letter, the CEOs also express their belief that consumers should have meaningful rights over their data and that companies accessing those data should be held consistently accountable under a comprehensive federal privacy law, as detailed in the Business Roundtable Framework for National Consumer Privacy Legislation.
Developed with input from companies and business leaders across every key sector of the economy, the Business Roundtable Framework provides a roadmap of issues a national privacy law should address as well as objectives it should achieve. Importantly, the Framework includes a set of consumer rights, including the rights to transparency, control and access and to correct and delete their personal data.
To read the Business Roundtable letter, click here. For more on the need for a national consumer privacy law, click here.
*NOTE: Since the letter was transmitted to Congress on September 10, 2019, three signatures were added on October 2, 2019, including Corie Barry, Chief Executive Officer, Best Buy Co. Inc.; Chuck Robbins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems, Inc.; and David Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs & Co.