I am so proud to stand here today as we work to pass gun violence prevention legislation. I would like to share a letter from a fifth grader constituent of mine, Alex, from Northfield, Illinois, that perfectly explains why we must pass…

I really do not think we ought to get into only you are telling the truth and we are not.

Consumer protection is my passion, and what first drew me to public life.

I ask each witness to respond promptly to any such requests that you may receive.

I want to thank our ranking member, the staff that worked so hard on all of this, thank you, and especially our witnesses for your participation today in this very first hearing of the session dealing with this issue of data privacy which…

I encourage you to also keep in touch as we move forward. We welcome your input.

According to a recent SAS survey, over 80 percent of U.S. adults were not very confident in the security of personal information held by social media, retail, and travel companies.

Under my leadership, this subcommittee will be extremely active and push companies and the administration to put consumers first.

Our first hearing, 'Protecting Consumer Privacy in the Era of Big Data,' couldn't be more timely because the phone at the helpline is ringing off the hook.

As Chair Schakowsky said, we need to look toward comprehensive privacy legislation-legislation that shifts the burdens off consumers and puts reasonable responsibility on those profiting from the collection and use of our data.

You can see the kind of broad spread interest.

Without a comprehensive, Federal privacy law the burden has fallen completely on consumers to protect themselves and this has to end.