Data privacy experts predict some wins under Trump 2.0

The national security link to data privacy will be a focus for the Trump administration and a Republican Congress focused on the threat posed by China, said Brandon Pugh, a director and resident senior fellow for the right-leaning policy nonprofit R Street Institute.

“While we say it’s a data privacy law, we can’t forget that it has data security provisions in it and it would actually secure the data we are collecting, which is largely not regulated right now, outside of specific industries,” Pugh said. “It’s a huge issue. How adversaries are leveraging this data is an angle we can’t forget.” 

A data privacy bill passing will be determined by how the perennial debate over a private right of action and preemption are resolved, Pugh said, adding that there is still “steep disagreement” on those issues. He said that in addition to those “hot ticket” issues, there is also debate over how to regulate data minimization…

The former Trump administration was hawkish on China. Pugh said he expects the new administration to drill down on the nexus between national security and data, also with a focus on China.

“It’s safe to say that under a Trump administration the national security link to privacy will probably be a priority, especially considering that China is a factor in terms of collecting information on Americans and exploiting it,” he said. “A lot of Republicans have been hyper concerned about these actions by China.”

One question hinges on how ongoing Biden administration efforts to regulate bulk data transfers to China and other adversarial nations fare under Trump.

Members of industry were skeptical of the bulk data transfer proposed rule when it first was announced due to how its provisions could affect legitimate business practices. The Biden administration has recently made some changes to the proposed rule to address those concerns, Pugh said.

However, Trump could rescind the executive order which led to the rulemaking or change it, Pugh said, citing the fact that it is not yet finalized and industry remains concerned about how to implement many of the proposed new measures.