Five members of Congress referred to as for federal consumer-privacy laws after a Reuters report printed Friday revealed how Amazon.com Inc has led an under-the-radar marketing campaign to intestine privateness protections in 25 states whereas amassing a beneficial trove of private information on American shoppers.

“Amazon shamefully launched a campaign to squash privacy legislation while its devices listen to and watch our lives,” US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who has been concerned in bipartisan negotiations on privateness laws, wrote Friday on Twitter. “This is now the classic Big Tech move: deploy money and armies of lobbyists to fight meaningful reforms in the shadows but claim to support them publicly.”

The revelations underscored the necessity for bipartisan motion on stronger privateness protections, he wrote. No main federal privateness laws has handed Congress in years as a result of members have been deadlocked on the problem.

US Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has launched a number of privateness payments lately, stated in an announcement that the Reuters story confirmed how firms together with Amazon are “spending millions to weaken state laws,” and hoping Congress will even water down federal laws “until it’s worthless.”

“Congress needs to prove Amazon wrong, and pass legislation that finally stops massive corporations from abusing and exploiting our personal data,” Wyden stated.

Asked for remark, Amazon didn’t straight handle the lawmaker criticisms of its lobbying marketing campaign towards privateness protections. The firm reiterated its assertion for the earlier Reuters report, saying it prefers federal privateness laws to a “patchwork” of state laws. The firm stated it needs one federal privateness legislation that “requires transparency about data practices, prohibits the sale of personal data without consent, and ensures that consumers have the right to request access to and deletion of their personal information.”

US Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who chairs a key House shopper safety subcommittee that offers with privateness points, stated the Reuters revelations present how Amazon is working to dam shopper privateness laws whereas “claiming to support” such laws.

“What they mean is that they support privacy legislation that protects their profits and their right to mine consumers’ data, including voice recordings and facial scans,” she stated in an announcement. “Congress is not convinced nor are we intimidated.”

Two different lawmakers who signify areas with a big Amazon presence – US Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, and US Representative Suzan DelBene, a Washington state Democrat – additionally stated Reuters’ findings confirmed the necessity for federal motion to guard shoppers.

“Congress will protect consumers’ privacy to stop big tech companies from stealing Americans’ personal information, whether these companies like it or not,” Blackburn stated in an announcement.

© Thomson Reuters 2021