Lawmakers unveil sprawling plan to expand online privacy protections [Video]

Key federal lawmakers Sunday unveiled a sweeping proposal that would for the first time give consumers broad rights to control how tech companies like Google, Meta and TikTok use their personal data, a major breakthrough in the decades-long fight to adopt national online privacy protections.

The bipartisan agreement, struck by Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., marks a milestone in the congressional debate over data privacy. The issue has befuddled lawmakers despite near-universal agreement – in Silicon Valley and in Washington – on the need for federal standards to determine how much information companies can collect from consumers online.

The measure, a copy of which was reviewed by The Washington Post, would set a national baseline for how a broad swath of companies can collect, use and transfer data on the internet. Dubbed the American Privacy Rights Act, …