Congressman Markey is a national leader on technology policy and consumer protection. He served for 20 years as Chair or Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet where he was the principal author of many of the laws now governing our nation’s telephone, broadcasting, cable television, wireless, and broadband communications systems. Additionally, he is one of the earliest and strongest leaders for health privacy rights. As Congress began to grapple with the lack of health privacy, he authored model federal legislation known as the TRUST Act, setting a high bar to address gaps in HIPAA. As HITECH was being drafted, he was instrumental in assuring the inclusion of key new health data security and privacy protections for all consumers and patients. He personally championed tough new data security protections requiring technologies like encryption to render data unreadable.
Click below to watch Congressman Markey accept the Louis D. Brandeis Privacy Award, presented by the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, during the 2012 Celebration of Privacy.