Bill to Extend Privacy Protections Given to Federal Officials to All Americans Blocked in Senate

The Protecting Americans from Doxing and Political Violence Act, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), would have extended previously enacted provisions meant to protect federal officials, lawmakers and the families from having their personal data sold or traded by data brokers to cover everyone.

“Members of Congress should not receive special treatment,” Wyden said on the Senate floor. “Our constituents deserve protection from violence, stalking, and other criminal threats.”

Wyden asked for unanimous consent, a time-saving procedure that allows a bill to bypass the lengthy process of extended debate and rollcall votes. It is used frequently to pass uncontroversial bills or measures with broad bipartisan support, but it can be blocked if even a single senator objects.

Cruz was the sole senator to object to the Wyden bill, claiming it could hamper law enforcement efforts, such as “knowing where sexual predators are living.”

But according to Daniel Schuman, the executive director at the non-profit American Governance Institute, federal law already requires a publicly available registry of sex offenders.

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“That registry lists offenders’ names and addresses online so parents and communities know where they live,” Schuman told TechCrunch. Wyden’s bill “leaves that system fully intact, explicitly permits law enforcement to share information with at-risk individuals, and exempts the press so news outlets can continue reporting freely on offenders.”

Cruz also objected to a second bill Wyden introduced that would have extended the protections for federal officials and lawmakers to state officials and their staffs, as well as survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Some individual states, including California, Texas, Oregon and Vermont have laws on their books requiring data brokers to register state authorities and provide certain information on the data they collect.

According to a recent study by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), however, many data brokers registered in one state are not registered in others, due to either inconsistencies in definitions or outright defiance on the laws. Data brokers also generally operate across state lines so that any restrictions on what they can do with the data they collect in one state are easily circumvented in another.  A federal law, with a single definition and single set of rules, could close those loopholes.

Per TechCrunch, Cruz said he was “interested in expanding the protection to as wide a universe as is feasible, as is practicable, but that answer is not yet worked out.”

The PRC-EFF study found 524 data brokers that were not registered in Cruz’s home state of Texas as of April despite their being registered in others, the most of any state.