Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Roy Wyman commented on the lack of a federal privacy law and how state laws are trying to fill the gap for an article in Corporate Compliance Insights examining the top compliance, risk and governance stories of 2023.
When asked about the likelihood that the United States will pass a federal privacy law soon, Roy stated, “The proliferation of state privacy laws may be giving a false sense of security to federal lawmakers that privacy is starting to be addressed. Given the overall inability of Congress to act on a number of issues, the pressure to address privacy concerns may need to be almost overwhelming for something to happen. In short, I wouldn’t underestimate the ability of the U.S. to do nothing for the foreseeable future.”
Discussing what consumers are missing out on without having a federal law, Roy said “[T]he FTC and other agencies will try to step in to put a Band-Aid on the issues. At this stage, much of the U.S. is missing out on rights of access, rights to have their personal information deleted, and even the right to opt out of sales of personal information. There is also an unseen but significant tax on the population as companies are forced to waste money addressing this mass of confused and inconsistent regulation.”
The full article, “A Look Back: Top Stories of 2023,” was published by Corporate Compliance Insights on December 20 and is available online. In addition to Roy’s comments about state privacy laws, Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys Thad McBride and Riney Green were also quoted in the article. Thad spoke about the impact of Russian sanctions and Riney spoke about the Corporate Transparency Act, also important top stories this past year.