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Unraveling The American Data Privacy Patchwork: Will the American Privacy Rights Act Succeed?

By Michael McLaughlin and Andria Adigwe
May 01, 2024

There are currently 16 states that have enacted individual comprehensive data privacy laws to protect their residents. With approximately 40% of the U.S. population residing in those states, the patchwork of data privacy laws in the U.S. has created significant legal challenges for companies doing business nationwide. However, with Congress taking up the new American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), those challenges may soon abate.

Introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the APRA is unique in the current legislative environment in that it is both bi-partisan and bi-cameral. The two sponsors of the APRA hail from Washington State, which is one of the states that have been laboring for years to pass a comprehensive data privacy law in the absence of a federal regulation. With almost one-third of US states slated to have individual comprehensive data privacy laws in effect by 2026, states and federal regulators are continuously adding to the tapestry.

As the focus on protecting personal data continues to grow with the ever-widening adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, exponential increases in the number and breadth of data breaches, and growing awareness of the risk posed by data brokers, the time appears right for a U.S. federal data privacy regulation to succeed in Congress. But is APRA that regulation?

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