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More than 50 CEOs call for federal privacy law

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More than 50 CEOs call for federal privacy law

More than 50 CEOs of major U.S. companies are urging Congress to pass federal consumer privacy legislation that would "strengthen consumer trust and establish a stable policy environment."

CEOs of 51 companies from the Business Roundtable, including AT&T Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Comcast Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., S&P Global Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Mastercard Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., American Tower Corp., wrote a letter Sept. 10 to U.S. congressional leaders urging them to pass a "comprehensive consumer data privacy law."

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the top Republican on the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, are also calling for a federal privacy law that preempts state rules in an effort to set one national standard.

The CEOs wrote that they want a federal consumer data privacy law that provides strong, consistent protections for American consumers amid concerns over compliance with a range of state regulations for business. The Business Roundtable also released a framework for consumer privacy legislation offering a detailed roadmap of issues that a federal consumer privacy law should address, such as creating protections for consumers by requiring businesses to take responsibility for the collection, use and sharing of personal information.

The letter comes as lawmakers have been more closely scrutinizing U.S. tech giants over their data practices. Fifty state attorneys general recently confirmed they are launching an investigation into potentially monopolistic behavior by Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC in the online advertising marketplace. Facebook on July 24 entered into a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for violating a 2012 order related to the company's user data practices, including a 2018 admission that the now-defunct data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica LLC improperly accessed millions of users' personal information.

Facebook is also facing a separate FTC investigation regarding antitrust concerns, which the FTC opened in June and is also subject to a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust review of leading online platforms. The DOJ in July launched the probe into technology companies to determine whether they stifle competition or engage in other practices that harm consumers.