The Archive

Thank you so much for joining our Punchbowl News virtual event with Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) yesterday.

Wyden discussed privacy concerns, tax credits and data brokers in our conversation centered around building trust in technology. Afterward, we were joined by Trusted Future’s Advisory Board Member Daniel Weitzner, who is also a senior research scientist at MIT, for a fireside chat. The conversation was presented by Trusted Future.

Here are the key takeaways from our conversation with Sen. Wyden:

→	Wyden slammed data brokers for how the companies treat Americans’ data. The Oregon Democrat vowed to investigate data brokers next Congress.

“These are some of the sleaziest characters around with basically no rules,” Wyden said. “They get women’s data with respect to Dobbs, and they get data with respect to business and health care and the like.”

Data brokerage firms make their money buying and selling the private details of consumers. Wyden framed data brokers as a true threat to privacy, dismissing a focus on TikTok as “missing the forest for the trees.” A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have called on the U.S. government to ban TikTok — the ByteDance-owned video app — because of its ties to the Chinese government.

A growing number of GOP-led states are also banning TikTok on government devices.

→	Wyden made the case for pairing an extension of the Child Tax Credit with an extension of the Research and Development Tax Credit.

Congressional Democrats have been floating this idea for months now, but a deal looks unlikely due to Republican opposition to how families qualify for the CTC.

Here’s Wyden on why the two tax credits should be paired:

→	Wyden claimed “some on the far right” want to violate women’s privacy by engaging in “uterus surveillance.”

Wyden said he was worried conservatives would track women’s data on the issue of reproductive rights, especially following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

“For all practical purposes, they would like to see women’s personal data weaponized,” Wyden said of Republicans.

→	Wyden called on Elon Musk to testify before Congress, while also taking a shot at the Twitter CEO’s public reception in San Francisco.

Here’s Wyden referring to a viral video of the crowd at a Dave Chappelle performance loudly booing Musk for minutes:

→	Here’s how Wyden reacted to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) recent departure from the Democratic Party.

Sinema has notably clashed with Senate Democrats during the current Congress, frustrating liberal lawmakers during reconciliation negotiations and the filibuster reform debate.

Additional takeaways from Trusted Future’s Daniel Weitzner:

→	Weitzner identified a major shift in privacy concerns due to an increasing number of Americans using mobile apps to track personal health information.

→	Weitzner said the best way for the United States to compete economically with China is to play offense, pointing to the recently-passed CHIPS Plus legislation as an example of this strategy.

Included in the CHIPS bill, which cleared both the House and Senate with bipartisan support, is $54 billion in funding and tax breaks to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The legislation also authorized up to $200 billion for research programs under the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Commerce and Energy departments.

Here’s Weitzner:

Watch the full conversation here.

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Thanks again for joining!

Team Punchbowl News

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