REWRITING THE RULES USER DATA , PRIVACY & BIG TECH By William Roberts A fter the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it was widely expected that the United States would soon follow with a framework for safeguarding data privacy without dampening the digital revolution that is driving U.S. innovation. Those expectations have proven overly optimistic, however. It's still possible Congress could act on federal data privacy law this year or next. But while there is broad consensus among company and consumer advocates that Congress should act, there's less agreement on what a new law should do. OCTOBER 2019 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 19