The SECURE Data Act: A Federal Privacy Framework (But for Real This Time?)

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They say the third time’s the charm, but we’d be surprised if that held true for this third major swing at comprehensive federal data privacy legislation.

On April 22, 2026, Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) introduced HR 8413—which, of course, has a delightful backronym: The Securing and Establishing Consumer Uniform Rights and Enforcement over Data Act, or SECURE Data Act.

It’s the first major federal consumer privacy bill released in years, the product of over 14 months of stakeholder engagement by the House Energy and Commerce Data Privacy Working Group, chaired by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY).

For privacy professionals, this bill deserves close attention—even if its final form, assuming it ever reaches enactment, may look quite different from what was introduced. But if you were in the privacy space when APRA and ADPPA were making the rounds, you’re no doubt tired of hearing that.

So, here’s the TL;DR for the SECURE Data Act: With an explicit preemption for state privacy laws, it sports the same Achille’s heel as APRA and ADPPA. Will this time be different?

What the SECURE Data Act Does

At its core, the SECURE Data Act establishes a national framework for consumer privacy rights, including:

The right to access their personal data
The right to correct their data
The right to request their data’s deletion
The right to receive their data in a portable format
The right to opt out of targeted advertising, data sales, and profiling used for legally significant decisions (albeit only for fully automated profiling with no human involvement)

This is essentially the basic privacy rights package you see across US privacy laws.

Additionally, the bill adopts distinct obligations for controllers and processors, requires opt-in consent for sensitive data, and creates a data broker registration requirement with the FTC.

Enforcement would be split between the FTC and state attorneys general—but critically, there is no private right of action,…

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