Senate Democrats Propose CONSENT Act

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) have introduced new privacy legislation titled the Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions (CONSENT) Act.

The bill would direct the FTC to “establish privacy protections for customers of online edge providers,” including notification about the collection and use of information about them and their activities, and the types of entities they will share the information with.

Its centerpiece is its “opt-in” requirement to obtain consent from customers for the use of “sensitive information,” in contrast the the usual model, under which customers may opt out of data collection. It would also prohibit a company from refusing to serve customers who do not consent to the use and sharing of their sensitive proprietary information for commercial purposes.