Senate Bill Would Send Tech Execs To Prison For Data Misuse

In the wake of continuing privacy violations and what some perceived as tone-deaf Congressional testimony from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, some senators are taking a close look at a bill first introduced last year by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon). The “Mind Your Own Business Act” would establish new privacy and security standards for tech companies, and back them up with a heavy enforcement regime. Among other provisions: Senior executives who lie to the FTC could get up to 20 years in prison. According to Wyden, enforcement history vis a vis Facebook illustrates his contention that the big tech companies can simply brush off even extraordinarily large fines. Facebook’s stock price actually went up this summer after it reached a $5 billion settlement with the FTC. Wyden’s bill has some bipartisan report, according to an article in Wired, which quotes what appears to be an endorsement from Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican. Some lawmakers, however, including another Missouri Republican, Roy Blunt, have voiced reservations. Blunt points to the unintended consequences of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law. He maintains it caught up a lot of smaller, presumably marginally or not at all culpable financial firms, even though it was supposed to target abuses in the very largest.