SPOKANE, Wash. — U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash) and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) recently put forward a new bill to protect data privacy, but some small businesses say they have concerns.
The two lawmakers unveiled the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) in early April.
If passed, some of the things the APRA bill would do is give consumers the right to control how tech companies such as Google, Meta and TikTok use their personal data.
It would also give users the right to opt out of certain data practices and the right to access & delete their data.
According to the drafted bill, small businesses would be exempt. Yet some small business owners in Washington have concerns about the exemptions.
The group Connected Commerce Council held a virtual press conference on Tuesday morning where a small group of business owners -- two of them based in Spokane -- shared their concerns.
That includes Bryan Totson, who co-owns Kraken Creative and the Paper St. Coffee Co.
"Digital tools are the only thing that we have to kind of get their name out there, communicate with their audience, let them know what's going on, what's new and get the attention that they need to actually compete in the market."
To qualify as a small business, the bill says a business has to meet one of three requirements:
- They can't sell their customer's data to a third party.
- They have an annual revenue of $40 million or less.
- They don't collect, process, retain, or transfer the data of more than 200,000 individuals.
During the press conference, Firecracker Software founder Jason Stock said he previously met with Rep. McMorris Rodgers to talk about the proposed bill.
While he likes parts of the APRA, he said he asked her to only look at the revenue for small businesses.
"But I asked her not to look at the number of users because for a digital business like mine, or even KREM 2 News’ website, there's going to be a lot of users. And it's hard to monetize those users with just ads.”
The Connected Commerce Council confirmed to KREM 2 News that they are funded by Google and Amazon.
If passed, the APRA would preempt current state laws.
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