Title: TLDR Act
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Terms-of-service Labeling, Design, and Readability Act or the TLDR Act
This bill requires commercial websites (excluding small businesses) to display certain information, such as a short-form terms of service summary statement. The bill provides for enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3501 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3501

To require the Federal Trade Commission to issue a short-form terms of 
           service summary statement, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 13 (legislative day, January 10), 2022

Mr. Cassidy (for himself and Mr. Lujan) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Federal Trade Commission to issue a short-form terms of 
           service summary statement, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Terms-of-service Labeling, Design, 
and Readability Act'' or the ``TLDR Act''.

SEC. 2. STANDARD TERMS OF SERVICE SUMMARY STATEMENT.

    (a) Deadline for Terms of Service Summary Statement.--Not later 
than 360 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Commission shall issue a rule under section 553 of title 5, United 
States Code--
            (1) that requires a covered entity to include a short-form 
        terms of service summary statement on the website of the 
        entity;
            (2) that requires a covered entity to include graphic data 
        flow diagram on the website of the entity and includes guidance 
        for such diagram; and
            (3) that requires a covered entity to display the full 
        terms of service of the entity in an interactive data format.
    (b) Requirements for Short-Form Terms of Service Summary 
Statement.--
            (1) In general.--The short-form terms of service summary 
        statement described in subsection (a)--
                    (A) shall be easy to understand, machine readable, 
                and may include tables, graphic icons, hyperlinks, or 
                other means determined by the Commission; and
                    (B) may be established separately depending on the 
                interface or type of device on which the statement is 
                being accessed by the user.
            (2) Location of summary statement and graphic data flow 
        diagram.--The summary statement shall be placed at the top of 
        the permanent terms of service page of the covered entity and 
        any graphic data flow diagram shall be located immediately 
        below the statement.
            (3) Contents of summary statement.--The summary statement 
        shall disclose the following:
                    (A) The effort required by a user to read the 
                entire terms of service text, such as through the total 
                word count and approximate time to read the statement.
                    (B) The categories of sensitive information that 
                the covered entity processes.
                    (C) The sensitive information that is required for 
                the basic functioning of the service and what sensitive 
                information is needed for additional features and 
                future feature development.
                    (D) A summary of the legal liabilities of a user 
                and any rights transferred from the user to the covered 
                entity, such as mandatory arbitration, class action 
                waiver, any licensing by the covered entity of the 
                content of the user, and any waiver of moral rights.
                    (E) Historical versions of the terms of service and 
                change logs.
                    (F) If the covered entity provides user deletion 
                services, directions for how the user can delete 
                sensitive information or discontinue the use of 
                sensitive information.
                    (G) A list of data breaches from the previous 3 
                years reported to consumers under existing Federal and 
                State laws.
                    (H) Anything else determined to be necessary by the 
                Commission.
    (c) Guidance on Graphic Data Flow Diagrams.--Not later than 360 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 
publish guidelines on how a covered entity can graphically display how 
sensitive information of a user is shared with a subsidiary or 
corporate affiliate of such the entity and how sensitive information is 
shared with third parties.
    (d) Interactive Data Format Terms of Service.--Not later than 360 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 
issue a rule under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, that 
requires a covered entity to tag portions of the terms of services of 
the entity according to an interactive data format.
    (e) Enforcement.--
            (1) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.--A violation of 
        this section or a regulation promulgated under this section 
        shall be treated as a violation of a regulation under section 
        18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
        57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices.
            (2) Powers of the commission.--The Commission shall enforce 
        this section and the regulations promulgated under this section 
        in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same 
        jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all applicable terms 
        and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
        41 et seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of this 
        section, and any person who violates this section or a 
        regulation promulgated under this section shall be subject to 
        the penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities 
        provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act.
            (3) Enforcement by state attorneys general.--In any case in 
        which the attorney general of a State has reason to believe 
        that an interest of at least 1,000 residents of that State has 
        been or is threatened or adversely affected by the engagement 
        of any person in a practice that violates this section or a 
        regulation promulgated under this section, the State, as parens 
        patriae, may bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of 
        the State in a district court of the United States of 
        appropriate jurisdiction to--
                    (A) enjoin that practice;
                    (B) enforce compliance with the regulation;
                    (C) obtain damage, restitution, or other 
                compensation on behalf of residents of the State; or
                    (D) obtain such other relief as the court may 
                consider to be appropriate.
            (4) Notice.--
                    (A) In general.--Before filing an action under 
                paragraph (3), the attorney general of the State 
                involved shall provide to the Commission--
                            (i) written notice of that action; and
                            (ii) a copy of the complaint for that 
                        action.
                    (B) Exemption.--
                            (i) In general.--Subparagraph (A) shall not 
                        apply with respect to the filing of an action 
                        by an attorney general of a State under this 
                        subsection, if the attorney general determines 
                        that it is not feasible to provide the notice 
                        described in that subparagraph before the 
                        filing of the action.
                            (ii) Notification.--In an action described 
                        in clause (i), the attorney general of a State 
                        shall provide notice and a copy of the 
                        complaint to the Commission at the same time as 
                        the attorney general files the action.
            (5) Removal to federal court.--The Commission may intervene 
        in any action brought under paragraph (3) and remove the action 
        to the appropriate United States district court.
    (f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to limit the authority of the Commission under any other 
provision of law.
    (g) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
        Trade Commission.
            (2) Covered entity.--The term ``covered entity''--
                    (A) means any person that operates a website 
                located on the internet or an online service, that is 
                operated for commercial purposes; and
                    (B) does not include a small business concern (as 
                defined in section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 
                U.S.C. 632)).
            (3) Interactive data format.--The term ``interactive data 
        format'' means an electronic data format in which pieces of 
        information are identified using an interactive data standard, 
        such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML), that is a 
        standardized list of electronic tags that mark the information 
        described in section 2(b)(3) within the terms of service of a 
        covered entity.
            (4) Sensitive information.--The term ``sensitive 
        information'' means any of the following:
                    (A) Health information.
                    (B) Biometric information.
                    (C) Precise geolocation information.
                    (D) Social security number.
                    (E) Information concerning the race, color, 
                religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability of 
                an individual.
                    (F) The content and parties to a communication.
                    (G) Audio and video recordings captured through a 
                consumer device.
                    (H) Financial information, including a bank account 
                number, credit card number, debit card number, or 
                insurance policy number.
                    (I) Online browsing history related to the 
                information described in subparagraphs (A) through (H).
            (5) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several 
        States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, territory, 
        or possession of the United States, and each federally 
        recognized Indian Tribe.
            (6) Third party.--The term ``third party'' means, with 
        respect to a covered entity, a person--
                    (A) to whom the covered entity disclosed sensitive 
                information; and
                    (B) is not--
                            (i) the covered entity;
                            (ii) a subsidiary or corporate affiliate of 
                        the covered entity; or
                            (iii) a service provider of the covered 
                        entity.
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