WASHINGTON–The mark-up of the American Privacy Rights Act will be the focus of attention from America’s Credit Unions this week, with concerns over several components and carve-outs.
The trade group’s chief advocacy officer, Carrie Hunt, said there remains a Gramm Leach Bliley exemption in the language it has seen but that it is not “creative enough” and it further creates some other “very complex” issues.
The mark-up is taking place in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“There are a whole host of other issues which we think will cause credit unions issues should this version of an exemption go into law,” said Hunt. “There are also some additional general questions with how this bill approaches federal preemption…There's such a long list of carve outs that we have concerns it will be ineffective. I think our biggest issue is the continued private right of action…Individuals could be awarded actual damages.”
And that means the potential for “frivolous litigation” and rising litigation costs for credit unions, Hunt said during a call with the media.
Some Positives
On the positive side, Hunt said there have been several changes made in the draft legislation that America’s Credit Unions does view as positives, including a clarification covering algorithms and AI.
But overall, Hunt stated, the changes have not “been impactful enough for us and we're going to continue to oppose the provisions of the bill which we think are incredibly problematic overall.
As she and America’s Credit Unions said in the past, Hunt repeated that the trade group does support a federal privacy standard and will continue our work on the issue.
‘Broad Coalition’
Hunt said America's Credit Unions has been working with a “broad coalition” of other organizations, mostly financial services trade groups, as well as some insurers, in advocating for its position on the privacy legislation.