Executive Session

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Thank you, Mr. President. Today I rise to speak about the legislation I introduced to the Senate this week, S. 1116, the BROWSER ACT.

Broadband or high-speed internet has absolutely revolutionized the way we communicate, the way we conduct commerce, and actually the way we participate in government.

Broadband is one of the greatest innovations in history. It allows near-instantaneous exchange of information and brings efficiencies to the daily life of millions of Americans as they move more of their transactional life online.

Thanks to broadband, entrepreneurs have been able to bring thousands of new applications to consumers. These edge services are now an essential part of our lives. We find ourselves every day saying: I can't imagine what we did before we had this or before we had that. These apps give consumers access to entertainment, news, information, helping us drive around town, and access to emergency services.

As consumers use these applications, they generate massive amounts of data about themselves, and that is the problem. Many companies collect this data and use it for a range of purposes without the user's knowledge.

They are collecting all of this--every bill you pay, every website you visit, these platforms are following you.

After all this information is shared, the question is, Who owns the virtual you? Who owns you and your presence online? Our laws have not kept pace with technological innovation.

Now we see some States and we even have some cities that are adding more complexity to the problem by enacting their own privacy rules and standards, despite the fact that digital commerce is not restricted to one area. Digital commerce is interstate and global in nature.

It is time we have a consistent national law regarding online privacy. We need one set of rules and one regulator for the entire internet ecosystem. It just makes sense.

That is why I have introduced the legislation I previously proposed as a Member of the House of Representatives. As I said, it is called the BROWSER Act. Americans want to be certain their privacy is protected in the physical and the virtual space. Broadband users--who are each and every one of us--should have the right to say who can or cannot access their private data.

Think about it. At this point, how and when you pay your bills, the credit cards you use, the sites you visit, the merchandise you shop for, friends you connect with, there is somebody tracking that activity with every move of the mouse. They are on it.

Consumers should have the right to clear and conspicuous notice of a service providers' privacy policies and the ability to either opt in or opt out, depending on the sensitive nature of that data. The BROWSER Act requires digital services to provide users with clear and conspicuous notice of their privacy rights. It also requires digital services to provide users the ability to opt in to the collection of sensitive information while also giving users the ability to opt out of the collection of nonsensitive information.

By allowing for a clear and conspicuous notification process, consumers will be able to make a more educated choice about the nature of the relationship they want to have with online vendors and with tech companies.

Furthermore, the BROWSER Act will prohibit digital services from denying their service to users who refuse to waive their personal privacy rights. The BROWSER Act also empowers the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, to enforce these rules using its unfair or deceptive acts or practices authorities.

Now the Federal Trade Commission has been our privacy regulator in both the physical and the online space. Just this week, Senator Klobuchar and I sent a letter to the FTC urging stronger action for bad actors in the tech space. Companies like Facebook and Google have transformed society in revolutionary ways and need to recognize that with that great power comes great responsibility. This is the 21st century; it is not the Wild West. These tech companies need to be respectful of your privacy rights.

My hope is that through this bipartisan effort, we will shed light on the need to protect competition and online privacy to keep up with the fast-paced changes in technology. The FTC has a responsibility to hold tech companies accountable for securing their platforms. We need them to step up and be the cop on the beat in the virtual space.

The BROWSER Act treats everyone in broadband and edge companies exactly the same-- one regulator, one set of rules. This is common sense.

Unfortunately, yesterday, Democrats in the House passed a bill to regulate broadband service providers, but they didn't do anything to Big Tech. They didn't do anything about privacy with Google, with Facebook, with Yahoo--these people who collect your data and sell it to the highest bidder; then that person markets back to you.

When I chaired the Communications and Technology Subcommittee in the House, I repeatedly offered to work with the other side of the aisle to preserve a free and open internet. I am always happy to work together to find a legislative solution and put this so-called net neutrality issue to rest once and for all. Rather than work together on this, the House pushed through a hyperpartisan bill to reinstate a controversial, heavyhanded regulation of communication companies, but--heaven forbid-- they do not want to touch Big Tech, their big buddies.

I am so grateful Leader McConnell has said that this bill coming from the House is dead on arrival in the Senate. I look forward to continuing to work on this issue. But here is what my friends across the aisle and my friends over in the House need to realize: The internet is not broken. The internet is not broken. Many of you probably have an electronic device close at hand. It is working just fine. The internet does not need the intervention of Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats. It is fine. It is going to be just fine by itself. In fact, as an alternative, we could just strike out the text of the House-passed bill and insert the BROWSER Act in its place--one set of rules for the entire internet ecosystem, one set of rules enforced by one Federal regulator. That is the BROWSER Act. It is about fairness. It is about encouraging innovation. It is about making certain we keep a free and open internet.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source