US House Republicans have introduced two major privacy proposals that would reshape how US companies collect, process, and retain consumer data: the SECURE Data Act for general consumer privacy and the GUARD Financial Data Act for financial institutions. The bills would create national standards for privacy and security practices while broadly preempting many state privacy laws, including the stronger protections already in place in states like California and Maryland. They also would eliminate the possibility of private lawsuits under the federal framework, leaving enforcement primarily to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. That combination of federal preemption, weak...