51 CEOs of tech companies are asking the US Congress to pass federal laws on data privacy

In an open letter to the US Congress, the CEOs of Amazon, AT&T, Dell, IBM, Qualcomm, SAP, Salesforce, Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, State Farm, Walmart, and others are asking for the adoption of federal legislation on data privacy. The letter states that the ever increasing data privacy laws on state levels, as well as regulations by US agencies create an environment where it is difficult for companies to comply and for the consumers to have equal protection related to data privacy across all sectors of economy. The open letter, drafted via the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large US companies, includes a suggested Framework for National Privacy Legislation, as well. Critics of this open letter point out that it is an effort by the companies to take over the federal legislative narrative on data privacy and safeguard the interests of the companies.