US Federal Privacy Legislation Tracker

Efforts to pass U.S. privacy legislation at the federal level have been ongoing for years, with dozens of privacy-related bills working their way through the halls of Congress. Numerous legislators from across the aisle have worked together on legislation addressing all facets of privacy, including individual rights and business obligations, special protections for sensitive information and access, records by law enforcement, and emerging technologies, such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence.

The IAPP Research and Insights team tracks and organizes the privacy-related bills proposed in Congress to keep our members informed of developments within the federal privacy landscape. The tracker includes proposed legislation organized by topic and summarizes the key parts of each bill to shed light on the most impactful provisions. The tracker also illustrates the bill's relation to state law — whether it preserves or preempts it — as well as whether the bill includes a privacy right of action, two of the most contentious and closely watched issues within the federal privacy law debate. Each bill is color-coded based on the party affiliation of its sponsors and cosponsors.

The tracker is organized by the topics of consumer privacy, workplace privacy, health privacy, financial privacy, and children's and educational privacy. The IAPP additionally hosts a separate federal privacy tracker covering bills that apply to the public sector.

The Westin Research Center will periodically update this tracker. If you are aware of a proposed federal bill that is absent from our list, please share it with us at research@iapp.org.

The IAPP additionally hosts a US State Privacy Legislation Tracker, which tracks comprehensive US state privacy bills to help stay informed of the changing state privacy landscape.