LIVE FROM MWC19 LOS ANGELES: Regulatory affairs officers from Verizon and T-Mobile US called for flexible, consistent and nationwide data privacy laws, with transparency for consumers cited as a key concern.

During a session covering federal consumer data privacy laws, Verizon SVP for state government and regulatory affairs Lydia Pulley said the operator was keen to see nationwide legislation put into place.

“You can see what consumers actually want, they want to be protected,” she said. “Federal legislation should be consistent. From a consumer perspective, they are concerned about the data, not necessarily where it has been collected from, social media, search engine or retailer. Whatever the rule is, it should be consistent across industries.”

Pulley added rules should also be flexible, given the levels of sensitivity of different types of data and the ever-changing technological landscape.

“We think it would be super important for companies to be transparent,” she said. “Consumers need to know quite simply what data is being collected and how it’s being used. That’s not necessarily true right now.”

Her comments were backed by Michelle Rosenthal, T-Mobile director of privacy and security for federal regulatory affairs, who added there should also be a greater number of staff employed by the US Federal Trade Commission to ensure adequate enforcement of new regulations.

Rosenthal argued ther there is a need in any law to “incentivise companies to de-identify and aggregate data,” calling it “good data hygiene”.