Abstract:
This article, more of an opinion/editorial, explores the possibility of the United States’ Congress introducing a comprehensive federal privacy law. Historically, in the United States, Congress had only passed several “narrow industry-specific laws,” leaving companies to be regulated by a “patchwork of various federal and state privacy laws.” Solove believes that a comprehensive federal privacy law is necessary to protecting the security of the nation and proposes ideas on how to enact policies toward his vision. Due to the reluctance of companies in the private sector to accept federal regulations, he explores the idea of Congress granting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “special rule-making authority to come up with a comprehensive privacy regulation.” The FTC has done well over the last few years “enforcing against privacy and data security violations” and has “enforced consistently and based on widely-accepted norms and practices.” While the proposal and reasoning Solove provides is strong and hopeful, he still concludes that the likeliness of a comprehensive plan such as his would be enacted by the federal government any time in the near future.