Washington, D.C. – TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives, today issued the following statement, attributed to TechNet President and CEO Linda Moore, following the release of the Competition in the Mobile App Ecosystem report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA):
“We agree with NTIA that the app market must be ‘robust, open, innovative and secure,’ but recommendations included in today’s report would cause serious harm to Americans’ data and privacy and have unintended consequences on our national security and global competitiveness.
“Consumers want their phones and apps to be secure, with more than 90 percent of Americans saying protecting their privacy is a top priority in an app store. But measures suggested by NTIA would make it easier for criminals, hackers, and our foreign adversaries, like China and Russia, to execute malware, ransomware, and cyberattacks. With cyberattacks on U.S. organizations up 57 percent last year, we should be doing all we can to protect Americans’ data, not making it easier to access.
“Every day, U.S. companies work to ensure the apps we download are safe and secure. Limiting the ability of app ecosystems to properly screen for and prevent security risks would hurt our national security and give bad actors a backdoor to access our data and compromise our privacy without any protections. Lawmakers from both parties agree.
“Congress and the Administration should seek specific solutions that actually foster innovation and economic growth rather than arbitrary mandates that will open a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences that would harm the digital tools we all use to stay connected to our jobs, our schools, and our families.
“Instead of overly broad and poorly designed policies that would fundamentally weaken our economy and our national security, we must pass legislation that NTIA, President Biden, and most Americans agree should be a top priority – a federal privacy law. Now is the time for the Administration and Congress to work together and pass a bipartisan national privacy standard that protects consumers’ data and privacy no matter where they live and provides businesses with certainty about their responsibilities.”