CES 2023: Federal Privacy Standard Needed for Consumer Protection

LAS VEGAS, January 7, 2023 – Despite certain self-imposed industry standards, a federal privacy law is necessary to ensure consistent compliance and protect consumer rights, said Chris Lewis, president and CEO of advocacy group Public Knowledge, at the Consumer Electronics Show Saturday afternoon.

Many experts and policymakers have called for a comprehensive national privacy law, but, although such a bill gained bipartisan support in 2022 before stalling, Congress has yet to act. Lewis argued that federal regulation is needed since companies often renege on voluntarily accepted privacy standards. “In the era of big data, the harms that come with [violations] are just exacerbated because of how much data is out there, both the harms to consumers and users [and] the harms to competition,” Lewis said.

Later in the panel, Lewis argued that case-by-case enforcement, as attempted by the current Federal Trade Commission, cannot keep pace with innovation. Privacy and data-protection rules would force innovators to consider those issues earlier in the product-design process, he said.

“You go up and you talk to [exhibitors at CES] and ask them things get at consumer-protection harms that could come from their technology or could come from the next iteration of their technology…you can tell that those harms are not front of mind, so we want to see them become more front of mind,” Lewis said.

The absence of federal action has led several states, including California, to pass their own privacy codes. Panelists argued that this “patchwork” of inconsistent state regulations creates uncertainty for consumers and the business community.