Senator Blumenthal Floor Speech On World Consumer Rights Day

(Washington, DC) – Today, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke on the floor of the Senate to mark World Consumer Rights Day and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s address to Congress calling for a consumer bill of rights. In 1962, President Kennedy laid out principles that would become the foundation for a Consumer Bill of Rights – rights to safety, information, choice, and to be heard. On the floor of the Senate, Senator Blumenthal called for an additional consumer right to privacy.

“It is a uniquely bedrock American right, the right to privacy. Concerns about governmental invasion of personal privacy go back literally the founding of our republic in the protections guaranteed under the Third Amendment, when the British lodged troops without permission in our homes. The Fourth Amendment, when they searched our homes and seized goods and property from them. I've heard numerous complaints from Connecticut residents who are concerned about their privacy. . . Those potential invasions of privacy are by the government, by official forces. . . But if the government were treating its citizens the way some companies are treating their customers, people would be outraged.”

Full transcript of the speech below:

Consumer protection has been a priority for me throughout my career, as I know it has been for the presiding officer. Both he and I served together as attorneys general and now as a Senator, he and I have worked to give consumers a -- have worked to give consumers a voice against companies that harm them through deceptive and dangerous or abusive practices. This month, Mr. President, we recognize consumers in two ways: national consumer protection week, recognize the week of March 4 through 10, is led by government and nonprofit groups. And its focus is to encourage consumers to take full advantage of their consumer rights and make better-informed decisions for themselves in the marketplace.

This month we also recognize many of the same consumer issues affecting Americans every day in their lives, the impact on consumers in every corner of the world. So today we celebrate world consumer rights day. Every day ought to be consumer rights day because, as President Kennedy once said, we are all consumers. And we are consumers every day of every year. Organizations here in America, such as Consumers Union and other consumer groups around the world celebrate world consumer rights day as members of Consumers International, the nonprofit organization representing 220 consumer groups in 115 countries. Today also marks the fiftieth anniversary of a very special day in American history for American consumers.

On March 15, 1962, President Kennedy sent a message to Congress calling for a national commitment to protecting consumer interests, fifty years ago today President Kennedy spoke about the consumer right to safety, to be informed, to choose and to be heard. These rights are the foundation of what we now know as the consumer bill of rights. The consumer bill of rights has grown to include eight specific guarantees: the right to satisfaction of basic needs, the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, the right to be heard, the right to redress, the right to consumer education, and the right to a healthy environment.

Today I'd like to propose another right, a ninth right. The right to privacy. There is a growing need to defend individual rights to privacy in a multitude of areas. This country was founded; its basic bedrock is on a desire for personal privacy, on the right to be left alone. It's the reason that people came to this country, avoiding unwanted and unwarranted intrusion on their personal space, on their rights and liberties. They came here out of a desire for religious freedom, economic liberty, and the security of their person and property against intrusion.

It is a uniquely bedrock  American right, the right to privacy. Concerns about governmental invasion of personal privacy go back literally the founding of our republic in the protections guaranteed under the Third Amendment, when the British lodged troops without permission in our homes. The Fourth Amendment, when they searched our homes and seized goods and property from them. I've heard numerous complaints from Connecticut residents who are concerned about their privacy. They're concerned about federal and state intrusion into women's health care decisions. They're concerned about government efforts to combat terrorism through tracking of individuals via G.P.S. or cell phone tower location. 

Those potential invasions of privacy are by the government, by official forces. But people today are also understandably and rightly concerned about corporate intrusion into their privacy. They're concerned about companies crawling the web to collect consumers' personal information and selling it to marketeers. They're concerned about mobile device acts that can access and acquire the device owner's photos and address book without his or her knowledge or consent. They're concerned about credit scores that are created from the use of medications, and those scores are used to set personal health insurance premiums.

And they're concerned about companies that are compiling dossiers on the use of social media sites or blogs and selling those reports to prospective employers. They're concerned because they're powerless to prevent the distribution of their contact information to marketers who then deluge them with advertisements in the mail and via e-mail, concerned about companies who don't secure their personal data and the damage that occurs with from improper breaches or disclosure. The Constitution was written to protect Americans from government intrusions into their privacy. And I understand the difference between government intrusions and private-sector invasions. But if the government were treating its citizens the way some companies are treating their customers, people would be outraged. They would be up in arms. They would be dumping tea into the Boston harbor. The Supreme Court has just ruled that it's not okay for the government to track people via G.P.S. in their car without a warrant. So why would it be okay for a company like OnStar, to track drivers who canceled their subscription and sell that information on their movements to marketeers?

Americans, many of us, and others were questioning the PATRIOT Act and its provisions that allow government to access records of what books citizens borrowed from the library and what web pages they visited while they were there. And yet, companies are tracking consumers' every movement on line through dozens, even hundreds of cookies that are secretly installed on consumers' computers whenever they visit a web site.

We'd be horrified if the government as a routine matter monitored pictures that people take and who they interacted with. And yet, according to news reports, mobile devices and apps are doing exactly that. I believe that it's time that we protect America from intrusions into their personal privacy by companies or educational institutions or others who may not be part of the government. Big brother or big sister no longer need wear a police uniform or a badge or a military uniform. It may well be under the guise of a corporate seal or insignia, and I believe that it is time that we protect against those intrusions as well as others. In fact, I think it is a bipartisan concern; one of the few areas where there is agreement in Congress is the need for better protection of consumers on online privacy. And we may differ on the substance.

We may disagree as to what the contours and the specifics should be, but I am concerned about this issue and I’m encouraged by the bipartisan support for attention to it. I was heartened by the president's recent call for a consumer privacy bill of rights, a great beginning, a very positive step forward. 

And I believe that our approach to privacy must be comprehensive and robust. As a threshold matter, companies that collect and share information about consumers should be required to get consumers' affirmative opt-in consent for collecting or sharing that data. Not an opt-out. An opt-in specific informed consent. And that should apply online as well as off-line. We've seen a lot of attention paid to Internet tracking and behavior advertising.

I think we ought to protect consumers from privacy invasions that come from the mail or over the phone as well. they particularly affect our seniors. If a company wants to collect, aggregate, share, sell, share, by selling or any other means, it should get consumers' permission. Otherwise it shouldn't be permitted. And we also need to pay attention to the collection of information for consumers' use of mobile devices.

As we've seen recently, some mobile apps or operating systems are capable of tracking not just consumers' web browsing but also their text messages, what they photograph, whom they contact, mobile devices need a system wide "do not track" option to allow consumers to control the distribution of their information. Finally, consumers' right to privacy also must encompass the right to prevent unauthorized distribution of that information. To that end, we need to establish requirements for companies that possess consumers' personal information to ensure they have security features in place to prevent data breaches. Those protections must be accompanied by remedies, by fines and penalties that make those rights and protections real so that consumers as well have a private right of action.

Congress is working on these issues. There have been numerous hearings and legislation proposed. And having the president add his voice to the call for privacy will only help. As with food safety, product safety, Wall Street reform, companies themselves are demonstrating the need for legislation, and some of them are joining in this effort very constructively. So, Mr. President, as we mark the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy's call to action, let us heed the importance of his message to Congress. And he said -- I'm quoting -- "as all of us are consumers, these actions and proposals in the interest of consumers are in the interest of us all." We should be proud in this body of having continued the fight for consumer protection. It should be full-throated and full-hearted.

Americans went west to the president's -- Mr. President, to your state and to others seeking the open spaces, the opportunities, economic but also personal. The privacy of being alone. And that American right, that American spirit is very much with us today. It is fifty years after President Kennedy first articulated it, but I believe it is as real and necessary today as ever.

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