Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican John Kennedy Thursday proposed a bill to protect internet users from their data getting breached, following the Facebook Inc. data harvesting scandal that affected some 87 million of its users.

The legislation, proposed after Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was grilled for two straight days before several congressional committees, is intended to ensure that companies such as Facebook are more transparent about what data they collect, that consumers have the ability to opt out of such data collection, and that if a breach does occur the consumer will have recourse to take legal action.

The full bill has not yet been drafted, but here are the main proposals.

• Give consumers the right to opt-out and keep their information private by disabling data tracking and collection;
• Provide users greater access to and control over their data;
• Require terms of service agreements to be in plain language;
• Ensure users have the ability to see what information about them has already been collected and shared;
• Mandate that users be notified of a breach of their information within 72 hours;
• Offer remedies for users when a breach occurs; and
• Require that online platforms have a privacy program in place.

“The data breach at Facebook showed the world that the digital promised land is not all milk and honey,” Kennedy said. “We’ve discovered some impurities in the punch bowl. I don’t want to regulate Facebook half to death, but there are things that need to be changed. Our bill will help protect Americans’ online data fingerprint.”

Senator Klobuchar offered similar sentiments, saying consumers have been left in the dark regarding their privacy, and they should have a legal right to know if information about them was being sold to the highest bidder. She compared how some digital companies operate to the “Wild West.”

“Most importantly,” Klobuchar said, “consumers should have the right to keep their information private, be alerted when a data breach has occurred, and be informed of the remedies available to them when their personal information is compromised.”

Kennedy had been outspoken during Zuckerberg’s questioning in front of Congress on April 10, saying Facebook’s user agreement “sucks.” He went on to say that he felt Zuckerberg was not exactly connecting with his interlocutors, and in no uncertain terms added, “I don’t want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God I will.”

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