Protocol, April 30, 2020

By Emily Birnbaum

The COVID-19 pandemic is shaping up as a new chapter in the fight over sweeping federal online privacy legislation. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker's announcement Thursday that he and other key Republicans on the committee will introduce legislation to regulate virus tracking signaled new congressional energy to pass a narrowly tailored privacy bill in light of a larger global reckoning over how governments and companies use data to surveil and potentially defeat the virus.

Aaron Cooper, vice president of global policy for software trade association BSA, said the legislation could help ensure all companies "play by the same rules and make sure consumers across the country have the same expectations." The bill, he said, "stands for the proposition that we shouldn't be sacrificing privacy or security while we're responding to the COVID crisis." BSA counts Salesforce, Microsoft, Intel and Adobe as members.

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Original Posting: https://www.protocol.com/senate-republicans-push-privacy-coronavirus-stimulus