US political rifts will delay federal data law

Significance

One item of unfinished business on the Congressional agenda is the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). Although the United States has a complex and often contradictory web of state and sector-specific privacy laws, the country lacks a federal law.

Impacts

• Twitter’s chaos will whet appetites in Congress to tackle ‘big tech’; proposals for this will likely be attached to a federal data law.
• A Republican majority in the House until 2024 will fuel resistance to a federal law that exempts government entities, as the ADPPA does.
• Investigations into the US handling of the pandemic will expose disconnects in the handling of data within the US public health sector.