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Data Protection, Privacy and US Regulation

This paper examines the state of data protection and privacy in the United States. There is no comprehensive federal data protection or data privacy law despite bipartisan and popular support. There are several data protection bills pending in the 2022 session of the US Congress, five of which are examined in Section 2 below. Although it is not likely that any will be enacted, the growing number reflects the concerns of citizens and lawmakers about the power of big data. Recent actions against data abuses, including data breaches, litigation and settlements, are reviewed in Section 3 of this paper. These reflect the real harm caused when personal data is misused. Section 4 contains a brief US copyright law update on the fair use exemption, highlighting a recent court decision and indications of a re-thinking of the fair use analysis. In Section 5, some observations are made on the role of privacy in data protection regulation. It is argued that privacy should be considered from the start of the data collection and technology development process. Enhanced awareness of ethical issues, including privacy, through university-level data science programs will also lay the groundwork for best practices throughout the data and development cycles.