Senate Commerce Committee to Hold Paper Hearing on Potential Privacy Issues Surrounding COVID-19 Data Collection Efforts

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation began holding a paper hearing titled “Enlisting Big Data in the Fight Against Coronavirus” on April 9. The hearing is examining recent uses of aggregate and anonymized consumer data to identify possible hotspots of COVID-19 transmissions and to assist in accelerating the development of treatments. The committee is also looking at how the privacy rights of consumers are being protected and what the U.S. government plans to do with COVID-19-related data once the national emergency has passed. Among other things, the committee is considering the extent to which privacy laws, such as the EU’s GDPR and California’s CCPA, may or may not hinder COVID-19-related data collection, and whether the benefits associated with the data collection outweigh any potential privacy harms. Witnesses for the hearing include a law professor, representatives from the private sector, and nonprofit groups including the Future of Privacy Forum and the Center for Democracy and Technology.​
View the press release