Press Releases

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) today supported the passage of the Judicial Redress Act to protect privacy rights of citizens in U.S.-allied countries.  

“Our allies provide our citizens basic privacy protections. The least the United States can do is reciprocate in kind. The current inconsistency breeds distrust and harms the competitiveness of American businesses trying to serve customers around the world,” DelBene said. “The Judicial Redress Act is an important step for the United States to demonstrate it takes privacy in the digital age seriously, but we still have much more to do.”

Currently, Americans can ensure information shared with law enforcement in European Union (EU) States is accurate, and correct that information if not. However, the United States doesn’t reciprocate that right to EU citizens. The Judicial Redress Act would allow the administration to designate countries whose citizens would receive protections under the Privacy Act, such as the right to amend information provided to law enforcement or to seek redress for unlawful disclosure.

On October 6, 2015, the highest court in the European Union (EU) struck down a privacy “safe harbor” agreement with the United States, the purpose of which was to allow citizens’ data to be exported to the United States without violating EU law. Without a final, valid agreement for data transfer between the EU and United States, American companies will be subject to a patchwork of privacy laws that put the brakes on the free flow of data across borders.

DelBene has called on the United States to do more to bring its privacy laws up to date, which is why she helped introduce the Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act, the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad (LEADS) Act and the Email Privacy Act. That legislation would modernize electronic privacy laws so that a warrant is required across the board before law enforcement can access emails. Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), emails older than 180 days are considered abandoned and do not have this protection.

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