Jennifer Hennessy on American Privacy Rights Act – ‘This law does have teeth’

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Jennifer Hennessy assesses the prospects of what could be the first federal data privacy law passed in the United States in the Medtech Insight article, “Attorney: Proposed Data Privacy Law Would Ultimately Reduce Regulatory Burden.”

“Those of us that have been around for a while are always a little skeptical about a federal privacy law, because we’ve heard this story before,” Hennessy said, noting however that she is more interested in the American Privacy Rights Act than earlier iterations as the draft legislation addresses issues that have halted previous legislative action at the federal level on data privacy, including state preemption and consumer rights.

“One of the things that will be helpful for businesses is that they [won’t be] trying to comply with [15] different states’ consumer data privacy laws,” she said, highlighting that a national data regulation framework could ease the burden for businesses who currently navigate a patchwork of policies across states. “It’s not easy to do a one-size-fits-all approach, because the laws are similar, but different in key areas,” she explained.

“This law does have teeth as currently drafted—it’s not a weak law,” Hennessy added.

(Subscription required)