Facebook, Google to support house bill expanding privacy rights to non-US citizens

IN PHOTO: A Facebook logo reflected in the eye of a woman is seen in this picture illustration taken in Skopje November 6, 2014. Picture take November6. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

On Tuesday, Giant technology firms manifested through a letter tight support for a house bill that puts forward the extension of privacy rights to non-US citizens. Under the proposed legislation, or the Judicial Redress Act, foreign citizens are allowed to locate records that the US government have collected and take legal action if incidents violative of privacy rights arise.

The bill seeks to widen the scope of Privacy Act of 1974, where citizens of allied nations may equally enjoy the right vested by the law to American citizens. Under the particular law, Americans and permanent residents are given an opportunity to locate records, rectify mistakes in the files and seek redress if an American agency exploits any personal information it has collected.

“The enactment of the Judicial Redress Act would constitute another step in rebuilding the trust of citizens worldwide in both our industry and the U.S. government,” wrote the technology firms in the letter. The US surveillance program, revealed by Edward Snowden two years ago, greatly resulted in public mistrust which caused the technology sectors to suffer from substantial market losses.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook are among the enlisted giant technology firms in the US that expressed support for the legislation. Under the subject bill, only citizens whose countries similarly afford the same rights that Americans enjoy under the Privacy Act of 1974 are going to be qualified.

However, TechCrunch reported that Congress may be in hot water as passing the legislation would trample on the newly ripe data protection deal it has with the European Union. The said deal lays out rules on how the two countries are to exchange personal information during cross-border criminal and tourist investigations. Notably, the Americans are already enjoying privacy rights in Europe. Not returning that favour can significantly hurt the US markets established in European countries.