Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Should private citizens be able to sue companies like Facebook or Twitter for misusing their data? That’s the question Republicans and Democrats have been ensnared in for months, as they work to craft a new data privacy law. But talks have stalled in recent weeks, and rather than putting out a bipartisan bill, both parties have now opted to introduce their own measures to stake out their positions.
Last week, Democrats, led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), put out the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act of 2019 (COPRA), which would provide American consumers with a slate of new rights over the data they produce on platforms like Facebook and Google. These rights would require companies to provide greater transparency over user data and…