In Roslyn Layton’s Statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee On the General Data Protection Regulation and California Consumer Privacy Act: Optins, Consumer Control, and the Impact on Competition and Innovation, she declared “The 10 Problems with the GDPR Here are the 10 key problems with the GDPR, and, if not properly amended, these will also plague the CCPA. 1. The GDPR strengthens the largest players. 2. The GDPR weakens small- and medium-sized firms. 3. The GDPR is cost prohibitive for many firms. 4. The GDPR silences free speech and expression. 5. The GDPR threatens innovation and research. 6. The GDPR increases cybersecurity risk. 7. The GDPR and the CCPA create risks for identity theft and online fraud. 8. The GDPR has not created greater trust online. 9. The GDPR and the CCPA use the pretense of customer control to increase the power of government. 10. The GDPR and the CCPA fail to meaningfully incorporate the role of privacy enhancing innovation and consumer education in data protection.”

“Many Americans are persuaded by lofty descriptions of the GDPR—contrasting the legislation with what they see as a morally inferior laissez faire approach at home—both because they confuse data privacy and protection and because they are not familiar with America’s own substantive protections. Journalists and commentators glibly refer to the US as the “Wild West,” as if there are no laws or regulation on data privacy and protection. In fact, there are literally hundreds of laws relating to privacy and data protection in the US—including common law torts, criminal laws, evidentiary privileges, federal statues, and state laws. The EU’s laws are relatively new, officially dating from this century, and they still lack the runway of judicial scrutiny and case law that characterizes US law.”

“Rarely reflecting on past mistakes and rushing to outdo their predecessors with pseudo-consumer friendly platitudes, past European Commission presidents have proposed grand schemes that amounted to little. While it remains to be seen whether von der Leyen will do better, many voters are fed up with policies that promised jobs and growth but failed to deliver. The United Kingdom is the first country to make a serious go at leaving the EU; it may not be the last.”

“California's internet privacy regulations threaten to Balkanize American online commerce into a mishmash of 50 separate state regimes. AEI Visiting Scholar Roslyn Layton explains.” 

“Given its experience with two devastating world wars, Europeans can be understandably pessimistic about the future and take a negative view of how personal information can be abused. The US, on the other hand, having the longest-lived constitutional democracy and the good fortune of two relatively peaceful neighbors, has a relatively optimistic view of the future.”

Roslyn Layton testifies to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce of the Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing on Tuesday, February 26, 2019.

“On this episode of “She Thinks,” we talk big tech and privacy. With a bipartisan group of Attorneys General across the nation announcing an antitrust investigation into Google, we consider what it means for companies like Facebook and Amazon to bear federal regulations. Will it stifle competition? Or are these companies so large that they’ve already pushed out competitors? It’s a complex issue, but fortunately we have Roslyn Layton to break it down for us.”

“Just seven hours after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on May 25, 2018, Austrian activist Max Schrems’ non-profit None of Your Business (NOYB) lodged four complaints with European data protection authorities (DPAs) against Google and Facebook, claiming that the platforms force users’ consent to terms of use and demanding damages of $8.8 billion.”

“Unnecessarily prescriptive Internet regulation also harms users by altering, or breaking, the business models that have allowed the Internet economy to thrive. Countries pursuing Internet regulation do not only export their policy choices, they can “harm both the competitiveness of the country implementing the policies and other countries. Every time one country erects barriers to data flows, another country that relies on these data flows is also affected.”  

“We applaud the NTIA for its undertaking in this complex area. Most important, NTIA is starting at the correct place by defining fundamental principles and precepts, not by jumping immediately into a mode of trying to propose regulations for undefined or under-defined perceived problems. Yet the case for federal legislation, if only to preempt exceptionally sloppy and inconsistent state regulation, is growing, making this issue increasingly urgent.”

“Berin and Nilay have differed on a few issues regarding tech policy, like net neutrality, but what they do agree on is the state of the tech policy conversation — it’s bad. Szóka says Republicans he has previously worked with are now getting important topics like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act wrong, and bad-faith politicians are misinterpreting it to try to score points and pass policy in their favor.”

“Berin Szoka speaks on a panel held by the American Legislative Exchange Council.” 

“Putting principles first would make laws technology-neutral and thus more broadly relevant. We should empower civil-liberties regulators to assess whether a service or organization has denied services or equal treatment to minorities. We should let a privacy watchdog assesses whether the right to privacy is upheld. Antitrust regulators should determine whether antitrust and competition principles are respected. Challenges to free speech should be anchored in speech laws, not left to businesses to decide.“