2019 Outlook: Data Privacy Bill to Move Amid Corporate Push

Congress is likely to embark on an ambitious effort to pass a broad new data privacy law in 2019.

Tech companies are pressuring lawmakers to pass a bill to counter the European Union’s strict General Data Protection Regulation and California’s tough new privacy law. That push, combined with a wave of high-profile data breaches involving Marriott International Inc., Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, and other companies, have lawmakers actively weighing legislation.

“There is increasing demand from individual consumers and businesses—large and small—for strong, enforceable federal data breach and federal privacy laws,” Aaron Cooper, vice president of global policy at BSA|The ...