Opinion

Congress might upend how online privacy works. Finally.

Congress has failed to pass a federal online privacy bill time and time again, despite widespread agreement that the rules governing Americans’ data are outdated and inadequate. Yet, at the risk of seeming Pollyannaish, this time could be different.

One good sign is that a new bill, the American Privacy Rights Act, drafted by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), is bipartisan. Another is that it includes compromises on the two issues that have divided legislators. Now that two key lawmakers, each chairing her chamber’s committee on commerce, have hashed out their differences on these subjects, the rest should be easy. That is, if Congress doesn’t get in its own way.