WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) introduced the Data Elimination and Limiting Extensive Tracking and Exchange (DELETE) Act to protect Americans’ private online data. The DELETE Act would create a system for individuals to request all data brokers—companies that collect personal data for commercial use—delete any personal data the broker may have collected and to not collect it in the future.
“American should have privacy online,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Let’s give Americans a solution to ensure their personal data is not tracked, collected, bought or sold by data brokers.”
The DELETE Act would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create an online dashboard for Americans to submit a one-time data deletion request that would be sent to all data brokers registered. Under current law, individuals must request removal from each individual data broker to ensure their privacy is protected. This legislation would also create a ‘do not track list’ to protect taxpayers from future data collection.
Cassidy was joined by U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) and U.S. Representative Lori Trahan (D-MA-03) in introducing this legislation.
Background
Cassidy has been a consistent champion of online privacy and protecting user data. Earlier this year, he reintroduced the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0 to protect our children’s privacy.
In 2023, he also reintroduced the Protecting Military Service Members’ Data Act of 2023 to protect the data of U.S. service members by preventing data brokers from selling lists of military personnel to adversarial nations including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. In 2021, Cassidy demanded transparency from Amazon on their biometric data collection practices.
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