The holiday season is upon us. The race for the White House is underway in anticipation of its first primaries. And, of course, there’s impeachment. So you could be forgiven for not quite paying attention to the other set of hearings in Washington that are near and dear to this newsletter’s heart: federal privacy legislation.

Because this debate is critically important to the future of the internet and because it’s a complicated policy argument, I wanted to attempt a quick run-through of what happened in recent weeks.

Just before Thanksgiving, Senator Maria Cantwell introduced the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act. Here’s a bit of what it proposes:

Consumers would have the right to view, correct and delete their data. They would also theoretically be able to stop it from being sold by third parties.

Companies could face higher fines for data abuse.

Companies could be fined for first-time privacy offenses.

Companies would be forced to obtain special permission to collect sensitive data. This would include location information, biometrics and other information that can’t be easily changed, like a password.

The Federal Trade Commission could expand with the creation of a bureau for privacy.

A data security fund would be established, to be run by the Treasury Department.

State attorneys general would be allowed to bring privacy lawsuits under federal law.

Companies would be required to audit their algorithms for bias — especially with regard to financial discrimination or housing.

There’s a list of the other provisions that you can read here.

First, some reactions to the bill.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation was generally in favor but had misgivings around one point:

COPRA satisfies two of EFF’s three key priorities for federal consumer data privacy legislation: private enforcement by consumers themselves; and no preemption of stronger state laws. COPRA makes a partial step towards EFF’s third priority: no “pay for privacy” schemes.

In a tweet, Roger McNamee, an investor turned privacy advocate, called the bill a “step in right direction,” arguing that “it does not try to do everything. Key elements: right of private action and allowing states to create their own laws.”

On the Republican side, Senator Roger Wicker responded a few days later with a draft consumer privacy bill. Mr. Wicker said that much of the bill aligns with legislation introduced by Senator Cantwell, who is a Democrat.