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Fonte: The Guardian 

Amazon, Apple, Google, and others endorsed federal data privacy laws Wednesday, but experts argue consumer voices were lacking

It seems Silicon Valley and Congress can finally agree on something after all – the need for data privacy regulation.

On Wednesday, representatives from Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Charter, Google and Twitter appeared before the Senate commerce committee to endorse the notion of new federal data protection laws.

But whether such legislation will come to pass, exactly what it will look like and who it may end up favoring is a long way from being determined.

That Congress is now considering passing privacy legislation after more than a decade of debate and delay is a positive development, says Amie Stepanovich, the US policy manager for digital rights organization Access Now. But with a panel consisting entirely of major internet companies, consumer voices were sorely lacking.

“It’s really good that we’re seriously considering data protection in the United States with an eye toward a federal law,” she says. “That said, the exclusion of any non-corporate interests from the hearing … prevents members of Congress from receiving an in-depth picture of what the situation really is.”

Committee chair John Thune, a Republican of South Dakota, opened the session by acknowledging that a second hearing that will include consumer advocates would take place in about a month. But Stepanovich expressed skepticism that Congress would give equal weight and attention to the testimony of groups that wield less influence in Washington than their corporate counterparts.

By and large, Silicon Valley companies usually favor self regulation over legislation. But in May the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect, offering Europe’s citizens far greater control over how their personal data is collected and used. The following month, California passed its own version of GDPR, which has been dubbed the strongest privacy bill in the nation but has also been criticized by the state’s own attorney general for being “unworkable”.

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