WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee will mark up a series of bills, including a proposal that effectively mandates leading app stores collect American IDs to access apps and information.
Despite some initial progress, some of the Committee’s proposals remain constitutionally problematic: restricting minors’ access to lawful content and undermining adults’ right to freely access information.
In particular, the so-called App Store “Accountability” Act (ASAA) jeopardizes data privacy, violates free speech rights, and ignores the courts and privacy experts internationally that warn against the serious risks of government-mandated age verification.
“The App Store ‘Accountability’ Act is a dangerous and unconstitutional overreach that mandates leading app stores create a massive, insecure data-sharing pipeline by forcing users to surrender sensitive personal information to access protected, lawful information. We urge the Committee to reject this flawed model today,” said Amy Bos, NetChoice Vice President of Government Affairs.
“By treating the entire internet like adult content, this bill creates an ‘exceedingly overbroad’ prior restraint on speech that a federal court has already ruled is akin to requiring a bookstore to verify every customer’s ID at the door. Instead of protecting families, these rigid mandates strip parents of their authority and create a massive honeypot of Americans’ data that will be prime targets for cybercriminals. Congress should say no to digital I.D. mandates for app stores.”
The Committee Majority published a document that attempts to downplay the severe privacy, security, and constitutional risks associated with mandatory, sweeping age verification and digital ID.
NetChoice published our rebuttal, which can be found HERE.
Learn more about why Congress should REJECT legislative attempts to force unconstitutional, privacy threatening digital I.D. mandates on app stores HERE.
Read how the App Store “Accountability” Act takes power from American parents and guardians HERE.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.