Sponsor
Lori Trahan
Representative · D-MA
Representative · D-MA
The bill substantially improves consumer transparency and user control over online data at the cost of new compliance burdens, potential competitive/legal risks for businesses, and possible accessibility/interoperability challenges.
All internet users get clear, standardized, machine-readable summaries of website/app privacy terms so people (including low-income individuals and people with disabilities) can more easily understand and compare data practices.
All users gain clearer, easier control over sensitive data (e.g., deletion instructions and disclosure of which data are required vs optional), improving individual privacy management.
Users can see visual data-flow diagrams that show how sensitive data are shared with affiliates and third parties, increasing transparency about where personal data go.
Covered commercial websites and online services must implement machine‑readable summaries, interactive formats, diagrams, and reporting within 360 days, creating compliance costs and technical/legal burdens that hit small or near‑threshold businesses hardest.
Expansive disclosure requirements (sensitive categories, liabilities, multi‑year breach history) could expose competitively sensitive operational details or raise litigation risk for firms, which may raise consumer prices or deter innovation.
Mandating standardized machine‑readable formats, interactive tagging, and visualizations may create accessibility and interoperability challenges if not well specified, limiting usefulness for people with disabilities or low-resource users.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs the FTC to require machine-readable, accessible short summaries, data-flow diagrams, and interactive full terms for published terms of service within 360 days.
Official title: To require covered entities to issue a short-form terms of service summary statement, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 10, 2025 by Lori Trahan · Last progress March 10, 2025
Requires the Federal Trade Commission to write rules within 360 days forcing companies that publish terms of service to present a short, truthful, machine-readable summary, a graphic data-flow diagram, and the full terms in an interactive data format. The short summary must be accessible, disclose categories of sensitive data collected and shared, summarize user legal liabilities and transferred rights, show historical change logs, and include reading-burden estimates and directions for deleting sensitive data.