Dozens of civil rights groups had urged Democrats (some of whom inexplicably signed onto the changes) to scrap the bill, calling the changes “significant and unacceptable.”
The new text, designed to appease conservative lobbyists who represent the interests of big business, omits, for example, a key section that mentions “civil rights.” The deleted section was intended to prevent companies from buying and selling people’s data “in a manner that discriminates or otherwise renders impossible the equal enjoyment of goods or services on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.” For reasons that are not clear at this point, Republican lawmakers are adamantly opposed to such language.
The removal of provisions from the bill that would have held companies accountable for making decisions based on data that could lead to discrimination in housing, employment, health care and more sparked strong backlash from dozens of civil society groups, including the NAACP, the Japanese American Citizens Union, the Autism Support Network and the Asian American Coalition for Justice.
In a letter this week to E&C Democrats obtained by WIRED, the groups wrote: “Privacy rights and civil rights are no longer separate concepts but are inextricably linked and must be protected. Misuse of our data is no longer limited to targeted advertising and data breaches. Instead, our data is being used to determine who gets a mortgage, who enrolls in which school, who is hired, and who is not.”
But the cuts didn’t stop there. The latest version of ARPA apparently removed language intended to give users the ability to opt out before companies use algorithms to use their personal data to “facilitate significant decisions,” as well as language that would have obligated companies to investigate or audit the impact of their algorithms on users.
Both of these provisions included generous “pro-business” caveats: for example, users could only opt out of algorithmic decision-making if it was not “cost-prohibitive” or “demonstrably infeasible due to technical limitations.” Similarly, companies could limit public knowledge of audit results by only hiring independent assessors to complete the work, rather than conducting the audits in-house.
“APRA’s previous version required companies that develop or use AI that makes automated decisions about people in certain important areas, like employment, housing and credit, to be transparent about those systems and allow people to opt out of those automated decisions,” said Eric Null, co-director of the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights nonprofit. “Without these provisions, people could be subject to AI that makes or contributes to important, life-changing decisions about them, with little or no way to protect themselves.”
Digital rights groups, including Access Now, Demand Progress, and Free Press Action, have pressured Democrats not to accept these changes out of hand, arguing that “a privacy bill that does not include civil rights protections cannot meaningfully protect us from the most serious misuses of our data” and that these changes were forced “without prior consultation with stakeholders or considering the impact on the bill’s ability to address data-based discrimination.”
WIRED reached out to 23 Democrats currently affiliated with E&C on Wednesday to get their responses to the groups’ demands. One lawmaker responded:
“I already had concerns about the US Privacy Rights Act,” said Rep. Nanette Barragan, who noted the bill’s language could weaken the strong data privacy protections her home state of California already has in place. “The latest draft only deepens my concerns about the bill, as important civil rights provisions have been removed from the proposal.”
In a statement after the cancellation Thursday, E&C Democratic ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. blasted Republican leaders for meddling in the committee’s process while also thanking the committee’s Republican chairwoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and praising her commitment to “giving the American people back control of their data.”
“We’re not giving up,” Pallone added, declaring that he and his colleagues are the only ones in Congress with the courage to “stand up to Big Tech on behalf of the American people.”
