Facebook, Google Data Collection Under Fire in New Privacy Bill

A Republican senator plans to propose a bill that would let consumers block all websites from collecting unnecessary data, a measure that would likely hurt the data-powered advertising businesses of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc., and others.

While Congress is debating privacy measures that could allow consumers to opt out of data collection service-by-service, Josh Hawley’s proposal would allow consumers to choose a single setting that opts out of all data collection “beyond what is indispensable to the companies’ online services,” according to a statement.

Browsers have long allowed users to send “Do Not Track” signals, but the feature is ...