Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) released the following statement in response to Google publishing cell phone location data reports from 131 countries that show how people are following government social distancing and stay at home orders:

“The COVID-19 pandemic requires a whole government response and we should use every tool in our belts to slow the spread of this virus. However, I am very concerned about how tech companies and governments around the world and here in the U.S. could abuse the collection of sensitive information. This data should only be used for public health purposes.

“The Trump administration and tech companies should set the global standard by adopting data privacy principles around anonymization, use limitations, data security, prohibiting reidentification, and destruction after the pandemic.

“Telecom carriers have restrictions around with whom they can and can’t share data, but technology companies, like Facebook and Google, currently do not. I have long advocated for additional regulations around how technology companies use personal data and this further underscores the need for federal privacy legislation. I urge Congress to include this in its next COVID-19 response bill.”