Dozens of civil rights groups urged Democrats (some of whom surprisingly signed on to the changes) to scuttle the bill, arguing that the changes were “extremely significant and unacceptable.”
The up-to-date text, designed to appease conservative lobbyists representing the interests of massive business, omitted, for example, a key section relating to “civil rights.” The deleted section was intended to prevent companies from trading personal information “in a manner that discriminates against or otherwise prevents the equal enjoyment of goods or services based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.” For reasons that exist at this stage above obviousGOP lawmakers strongly oppose such language.
The removal of sections of the bill that hold companies accountable for making data-driven decisions that could lead to discrimination in housing, employment, health care, and more drew a powerful response from civil society organizations, including the NAACP, the Japanese American Citizens League, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, among dozens of others.
In a letter sent to E&C Democrats this week, obtained by WIRED, the groups wrote: “Privacy rights and civil rights are no longer separate concepts—they are inextricably linked and must be protected. The misuse of our data is no longer limited to targeted ads or data breaches. Instead, our data is being used to decide who gets a mortgage, who gets into which schools, and who gets hired—and who doesn’t.”
But the cuts didn’t stop there. The latest version of ARPA explicitly eliminated language that would have sought to give users the ability to opt out before companies could exploit algorithms to “facilitate decision-making” using an individual’s personal data. At the same time, it removed language that would have required companies to review or audit the impact of their own algorithms on users.
Both of these laws contained generous “pro-business” caveats. For example, users could opt out of algorithmic decision-making only if it was “prohibitively costly” or “manifestly infeasible due to technological constraints.” Similarly, companies could limit the public’s knowledge of the results of any audits by simply hiring an independent auditor to do the job, rather than doing it in-house.
“Previous versions of APRA required companies that developed or used AI to make automated decisions about people in certain important areas, such as employment, housing and credit, to provide transparency into those systems and give people the ability to opt out of automated decisions,” says Eric Null, co-director of the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Without these laws, people could and will be subject to AI that makes or contributes to important, life-changing decisions about them, and they will have few options to protect themselves.”
Digital rights groups such as Access Now, Demand Progress and Free Press Action have joined the pressure on Democrats not to accept these changes without a second thought, arguing that “a privacy bill that fails to protect civil rights, will not meaningfully protect us against the most serious misuses of our data” and that the changes were made “without prior consultation with stakeholders and without examining the impact on the Act’s ability to address data-based discrimination.”
On Wednesday, WIRED reached out to the 23 Democrats currently serving on E&C to seek a response to the groups’ demands. One lawmaker responded:
“I already had concerns about the American Privacy Rights Act,” said U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragán, pointing to a provision in the bill that could likely undermine stronger data privacy protections already implemented by her home state of California. “This latest bill only deepens my concerns about the bill, as key civil rights provisions have been removed from the proposal.”
In a statement following Thursday’s dismissal, E&C ranking Democrat Frank Pallone Jr. slammed GOP leaders for disrupting the committee’s work while expressing his gratitude to the committee’s Republican chairwoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, praising her commitment to “giving the American people back control of their data.”
“We are not giving up,” Pallone added, declaring that he and his colleagues are the only ones in Congress who have the courage “to stand up to Big Tech on behalf of the American people.”