December 2019

In 2013, 17 percent of consumers in both China and the US had access to a fiber internet connection. Fast forward to 2019, China’s penetration has jumped to 86 percent while the US is only at 25 percent. While America continues to suffer from an immense digital divide, China’s government has made incredible progress building out a state-sponsored super network of fiber optic connections. Despite the constant posturing and discussion about the importance of fiber, the US has not been effective at deploying a nationwide fiber optical network. Why is this?

Although separate Republican and Democratic bills are not the joint bipartisan proposal widely anticipated for several months, the bills and the hearing this week kick off the concrete discussion about privacy legislation that stakeholders have wanted for several months. The first bill to emerge was the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act filed by Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on Nov 26. Then, just before Thanksgiving, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) circulated a “staff discussion draft” of a Consumer Data Privacy Act of 2019 covering much of the same ground, but with a di

Privacy for America, a coalition of top advertising trade organizations and companies, released a comprehensive new framework for nationwide privacy legislation that would fundamentally change the way consumer privacy and security are protected in this country. The framework represents a new approach to data privacy that would not rely on the current ‘notice and choice’ model, which presents consumers with endless and complex privacy notices that they are essentially forced to accept if they want to participate in today’s economy.