Last month, two key members of Congress released a draft of the American Privacy Rights Act (“APRA”), comprehensive legislation that would change the landscape of consumer privacy law in the United States. If passed, APRA would create a national standard governing the collection, use, and disclosure of consumer personal information. It would also preempt a number of state laws, notably including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) and Genetic Information Privacy Act (“GIPA”)—although the act includes Illinois-specific provisions that parallel those statutes in part, and allow enforcement under those laws to continue in certain situations. The draft bill has been proposed by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
