Data Privacy

blackburn

Americans need to be able to control their “virtual you.” Senator Blackburn has led the fight in Congress to put consumers, not Big Tech, in charge of their data.

As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law and the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy, she has pressed for a national privacy standard that is comprehensive and enforceable: one that empowers consumers, promotes innovation, and ensures accountability. That standard must prioritize transparency, minimize data collection, and require real consent.

Protecting Consumers’ Privacy Online

Senator Blackburn has long fought to give Americans greater control over their personal information and protect their privacy online. During her time in the House of Representatives, she worked to advance a national approach to data privacy that would protect consumers while allowing the internet economy to continue to innovate. In 2011, Blackburn participated in a series of hearings examining consumer privacy online, where she emphasized the need to protect Americans from harms and spearheaded one of the first national privacy frameworks introduced in Congress.

Protecting Americans From Data Breaches

As Americans increasingly store sensitive personal information online, Senator Blackburn has worked to ensure companies are held accountable for protecting the data entrusted to them.

In 2015, Blackburn introduced the Data Security and Breach Notification Act, bipartisan legislation that would require entities holding Americans’ personal information to maintain reasonable security protections and notify consumers following data breaches.

Protecting Americans’ Private Communications

Senator Blackburn has fought to ensure Americans do not lose their constitutional privacy protections simply because their communications are stored electronically.

In the House, Blackburn cosponsored the bipartisan Email Privacy Act, which modernized federal privacy law by requiring the government to obtain a warrant before compelling service providers to disclose the contents of Americans’ stored electronic communications.

Holding Mark Zuckerberg and Big Tech Accountable

Senator Blackburn has repeatedly pressed Big Tech executives to answer for how their platforms collect, use, and monetize Americans’ personal information.

During Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2018 testimony before Congress following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Blackburn questioned Zuckerberg about Facebook’s collection and use of consumer data and challenged the company over who truly controls Americans’ online identities.

This scrutiny helped establish a central principle of Blackburn’s privacy agenda: Americans, not Big Tech companies, should own and control their “virtual you.”

Ensuring the FTC Holds Companies Accountable for Their Misuse of Consumers’ Data

Senator Blackburn made it clear that data privacy would be a priority within her first months in the Senate. In April 2019, she and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) wrote to the Federal Trade Commission urging them to investigate potential privacy, data-security, and antitrust violations by Facebook and Google.

“Tennesseans are rightly concerned about who owns their Virtual You,” Senator Blackburn said. “They want to be certain that their privacy is protected in both the physical and virtual space. The FTC has a responsibility to hold technology companies accountable for securing their platforms.”

Their letter noted the intensive collection and monetization of personal data, reported breaches, and Facebook’s plan to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, which raised the risk of user data being shared across those products without real consent.

Establishing A National Data Privacy Standard

In 2020, Blackburn joined Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) in introducing the Setting an American Framework to Ensure Data Access, Transparency, and Accountability (SAFE DATA) Act, comprehensive federal privacy legislation designed to give Americans greater control over their personal information, increase transparency, strengthen data-security requirements, and provide the Federal Trade Commission with additional authority to protect consumers.

Blackburn and Wicker reintroduced the SAFE DATA Act in 2021. The legislation would give consumers the right to access, correct, delete, and transfer their personal data; require consent before companies process or transfer sensitive information; limit unnecessary collection and secondary uses of consumer data; and establish uniform protections across the country.

Calling Out Facebook’s “Pivot to Privacy”

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on technological censorship and public discourse, Senator Blackburn told Facebook and former Twitter officials that Mark Zuckerberg’s sudden embrace of European-style privacy rules was not fooling the Senate.

She noted that Facebook had nearly two dozen privacy scandals in 2018 alone. The European Union’s privacy law had not disciplined the company, and if anything, it had locked in Facebook’s market power and raised barriers for competitors. “At some point, Facebook will have to atone for these sins,” she said. “Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘pivot to privacy’ isn’t fooling anybody.”

She argued that Facebook was wrapping itself in European content rules to dodge constitutional protections at home, and that Congress still had to write American privacy, data-security, and accountability standards rather than outsource them to Silicon Valley or Brussels.

Protecting Children’s Data From Big Tech

Senator Blackburn has been a leader in exposing how Big Tech companies track children, target them with advertising, and profit from their personal information.

As Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, Blackburn helped lead a 2021 hearing examining children’s online privacy and manipulative marketing practices. She has warned that children cannot understand the complicated privacy policies and data-collection practices imposed on them by technology platforms and has fought to restore parents to their rightful role in deciding how their children’s information is used.

The BROWSER Act

On Data Privacy Day in 2021, Senator Blackburn reintroduced the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (BROWSER) Act.

“The invasive overreach of the communication and technology sectors cannot continue,” she said. “Online users need a tangible way to safeguard their right to privacy without a denial of service. The BROWSER Act will put more power in the hands of users and work towards a culture of digital data privacy.”

The bill would require communications and technology companies to disclose their privacy policies in plain terms and give consumers a real choice to opt in before sensitive data is collected or shared, or opt out of other collections. This ensured companies could not deny service to users who refuse to waive their privacy rights and that a nationwide standard would apply so families are not left to a patchwork of state regimes.

The Kids Online Safety Act

Senators Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have championed the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which would require platforms to put children’s well-being first and give parents tools, safeguards, and transparency against online harms. When children are online, they are the product, and addiction is the business model. KOSA passed the Senate during the 118th Congress by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 91-3.

Senator Blackburn has said she will not greenlight a hollow House substitute that strips that duty of care, and she is committed to sending the Senate bill to the President so children have the same safety standards in the virtual space that every other industry already meets.

Probing “Active Listening” by Cox, Meta, and Google

In September 2024, Senator Blackburn sent letters to Cox Media Group, Meta, and Google after reporting that Cox had told investors it used “active listening” software that captures “real-time intent data” by listening to users’ phone conversations, going on to name Meta and Google as clients.

“Consumers have long expressed concerns about their privacy in the virtual space and how their data is misused,” she wrote. “If this reporting is true, it confirms longstanding suspicions by many consumers that technology and media companies are violating their privacy for profit by marketing products that closely reflect key words or phrases from private conversations.”

Strengthening Data Security To Protect Consumers

As Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Senator Blackburn pushed for stronger safeguards to protect Americans from data breaches and the misuse of their personal information.

At a 2024 Commerce Committee hearing on data security, Blackburn examined the threats facing consumers when companies fail to adequately safeguard sensitive information and continued her push for strong consumer privacy protections and greater accountability for companies entrusted with Americans’ data.

The Safe and Private Rides Act

In May 2025, Senators Blackburn and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced the Safe and Private Rides Act.

“Passengers shouldn’t have to sacrifice their right to privacy the moment they step into a rideshare vehicle, and they deserve to know when they are being recorded,” Senator Blackburn said.

The bill would require ride-hailing companies to tell passengers when a driver has a video recording device in the car, give riders the chance to opt out of that trip, and allow the FTC to enforce those transparency rules.

Securing A National Data Privacy Standard

Senator Blackburn has been adamant for years through her work on data privacy: Congress must pass a national privacy law and see it signed. In July 2025, she chaired a subcommittee hearing titled Protecting the Virtual You: Safeguarding Americans’ Online Data, examining how a federal framework can protect personal information across state lines, empower consumers, and still leave room for responsible innovation.

She has argued that states have stepped in to fill in the gap only because Washington has not acted, and that Big Tech’s opposition cannot be allowed to block federal legislation to govern the virtual space. Once large language models and other AI systems scoop up personal information, that data is used to train models Americans never agreed to feed. Privacy rules written for the physical world must be extended to the digital one as well.

Preserving States’ Ability To Protect Americans From AI Harms

Senator Blackburn has fought to ensure that Washington does not prevent states from protecting their citizens while Congress has yet to enact comprehensive federal safeguards for emerging technologies.

In 2025, Blackburn led the successful effort to strike a proposed federal moratorium that would have restricted states from enforcing laws regulating artificial intelligence. Blackburn argued that Congress should not tie states’ hands while Americans remain without comprehensive federal online privacy and emerging-technology protections.

Identity, Likeness, and Data Used to Train AI

Senator Blackburn has warned that privacy and identity are crucial to protect as generative AI develops. She is a lead sponsor of the bipartisan NO FAKES Act, which would protect a person’s name, image, likeness, and voice from unauthorized digital replicas.

In May 2025, Senator Blackburn led a hearing titled “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly,” urging Congress to pass her bill to protect artists from harmful AI deepfakes and voice clones and collection of their data without consent.

Blackburn Presses Facial Recognition Company on Facial Recognition and Privacy

In September 2025, Senator Blackburn pressed PimEyes, an AI-powered facial recognition and reverse-image-search company, over concerns that its technology could be weaponized to identify individuals and expose their personal information.

Blackburn wrote to PimEyes after reports that activists had used the company's facial search engine to identify federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. She raised concerns that technology capable of identifying a person from an image can turn someone's face into a gateway to their identity and other personal information.

“PimEyes has purported that this technology can assist in public safety by locating dangerous offenders,” Blackburn wrote. “However, a publicly accessible digital library of individuals’ lives and likenesses in the wrong hands poses unthinkable risks.”